i have no love for McCartney, but this really sucks. i hope she spends those millions quickly within a few years then become a forgotten peg-legged drug-addicted hag. or here's a thought, Sir Paul: hire a Hitman.
cue in that Kanye song.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Friday, March 14, 2008
there will be blood
yes, i got that DVD for a mere $15, a cheap bargain considering it will be a classic down the road and i even the scales a bit with all the others i downloaded "procured". so get off my case.
but that's not what am talking about here. for double that amount, they issued a Hitman trilogy, compiling those three games that matter in the series (Hitman 2, 3 and 4). i don't mind playing games even after the world has moved on to the next big thing. i still use my trusty PS2, i sold my PSP, and the only reason i may get a PS3 when that MGS4 bundle comes out is to jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon.
but that's not what am talking about here. for double that amount, they issued a Hitman trilogy, compiling those three games that matter in the series (Hitman 2, 3 and 4). i don't mind playing games even after the world has moved on to the next big thing. i still use my trusty PS2, i sold my PSP, and the only reason i may get a PS3 when that MGS4 bundle comes out is to jump on the Blu-Ray bandwagon.
so here i am, back to being a murderer. emphasis on mass.
i have no idea what the Hitman game was about prior to this, and i vaguely looked at the movie adaptation with Tim Olyphant (i guess he missed the guns too much post-Deadwood). but then again, the title should say it all. shiny guns, whacking lowlifes in both low and high places ... what's not to like? (yeah you have to be stealthy, which i really don't do a good job of)
aside from the whole thing being a time killer, i usually waste more time piling dead bodies on top of the other. its some kind of perverse fun to put hardy male Russian soldiers in various provocative positions, especially after you've stolen their clothes. take that, Mr. Russian President!
aside from the whole thing being a time killer, i usually waste more time piling dead bodies on top of the other. its some kind of perverse fun to put hardy male Russian soldiers in various provocative positions, especially after you've stolen their clothes. take that, Mr. Russian President!
as the game progresses (i'm still on the first disc, and lost somewhere in Japan), i learned how to cut down on the collateral damage (but its fun!), although i am still a goddamned mass murderer.
my only complaint is there are no extra health capsules for Hitman to use. did i miss something in the manual? (INRTFM) oh wait, there it is.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
and he's free ...
so many words have been written in the last 72 hours on Gollum Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace (grace? he was in a state of grace?), and mine wouldn't even matter. we started this week with a dumb girl, and we're ending it with a dumb gov. or maybe something much more spectacular would happen this weekend.
too many people jumped at the chance to rattle off their 10 cents worth, and we should be thankful that Rep. Joe Bruno had enough class not to pile on. even former Hollywood madams got into the act, explaining how the deal works. the lesson here, kids, is once you're in public office, all bets are off. prepare for the fall.
too many people jumped at the chance to rattle off their 10 cents worth, and we should be thankful that Rep. Joe Bruno had enough class not to pile on. even former Hollywood madams got into the act, explaining how the deal works. the lesson here, kids, is once you're in public office, all bets are off. prepare for the fall.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Friday, March 07, 2008
alone again, naturally
no, i'm not back to being single.
i'm just being literal.
with some bad viruses downing a couple of my colleagues ... sorry, those are all the colleagues i have! ... it falls upon me, your humble blogger, to hold the fort so to speak. holding the fort in this case means, being the sole person responsible for the office. can you imagine this? a decent company earning a modest black bottom line has only three full time employees, and is currently being manned by one man. time to wear the multitasking hat. for a week.
note: this is being blogged after the fact, which just goes to show, i don't even have the time for bathroom breaks. or posting (yeah right).
how long have i been in this place? its been a long journey since i roamed Greenbelt when it still wasn't the G it is now. if it hadn't been for an 18-month break with Urban Bank (r.i.p. Sir Ted Borlongan), i would have an uninterrupted 14-year iron man streak with the same company. would you believe they gave me my first job? i still have that newspaper ad from the Manila Bulletin.
and speaking of that newspaper ad, it said "some travel required". or something like that. basta, it involved the word "travel". after several trips to China (and some good horror stories), i thought it was going to be that way forever. i had no inkling that i would end up here in the Big Apple. New York was just a fantastical place i read about in my comics.
ah, but before i would get to these mean streets that Rudy cleaned up, i was sent to Orlando first. that was like heaven. they tell me to support a few customers (nowadays they call you a call center agent), gave you a nice 1 BR apartment and a car (how i miss that Cougar) and let you live your own life. for just a measly $45 a day, i was still able to send a balikbayan box or two back home from time to time. now that am a full-time salaried employee? bleeeh.
Orlando was a dream job location then. but it already provided me glimpses of holding the fort - what with salespeople mostly on the road most of the time, leaving me to my own devices in the office (Napster!!!). punch out at 5, drive around, get home just in time to watch Friends and Seinfeld, and do it all again tomorrow. no wonder i got fat.
and in keeping with the lone wolf theme, i was the last employee there when we closed the Orlando office and moved to New York. i remember holding the company signboard and tossing it in the back seat, and drove away playing "New York State of Mind".
i count myself lucky to have been taken by the company on a permanent basis despite the economic ills brought about 9/11. all the crazy shit it created (paranoid and gung-ho Yanks masquerading as patriots, stupid airline security policies, the Iraq mess, the immigration chokehold, no salary raises since) i barely squlame ... sorry, squarely blame on those jackasses who flew the planes in the towers. thanks a lot, jerks. i hope those 77 virgins are actually AIDS-infected cryogenically-frozen spinsters.
ok, ok, am rambling.
there were only two of us taken from our Manila office. nobody followed since, except for short stints and those were few and far in between. but since 2 out of 3 of the current personnel are Pinoys, then hell, i consider this the Manila Extension office.
three people making up an office seem pathetic. would you rather be a jack of all trades, enjoying a bit more freedom and leeway in your working environment, or be a cog in the big machine, neutered by strict policies but only saddled with specific tasks and responsibilities? even i am torn on that one.
so here i was, having the whole week and the office to myself. maybe if i were younger i'd skip to watch a movie (yeah you know who you are!). but no, there's too many calls and problems to analyze to even consider going to lunch. ok, that's a bit extreme but you know what i mean.
despite the novelty of being alone (means i can play Crystal Method at a non-dog audio level), i look forward to have my colleagues back next week.
i'm just being literal.
with some bad viruses downing a couple of my colleagues ... sorry, those are all the colleagues i have! ... it falls upon me, your humble blogger, to hold the fort so to speak. holding the fort in this case means, being the sole person responsible for the office. can you imagine this? a decent company earning a modest black bottom line has only three full time employees, and is currently being manned by one man. time to wear the multitasking hat. for a week.
note: this is being blogged after the fact, which just goes to show, i don't even have the time for bathroom breaks. or posting (yeah right).
how long have i been in this place? its been a long journey since i roamed Greenbelt when it still wasn't the G it is now. if it hadn't been for an 18-month break with Urban Bank (r.i.p. Sir Ted Borlongan), i would have an uninterrupted 14-year iron man streak with the same company. would you believe they gave me my first job? i still have that newspaper ad from the Manila Bulletin.
and speaking of that newspaper ad, it said "some travel required". or something like that. basta, it involved the word "travel". after several trips to China (and some good horror stories), i thought it was going to be that way forever. i had no inkling that i would end up here in the Big Apple. New York was just a fantastical place i read about in my comics.
ah, but before i would get to these mean streets that Rudy cleaned up, i was sent to Orlando first. that was like heaven. they tell me to support a few customers (nowadays they call you a call center agent), gave you a nice 1 BR apartment and a car (how i miss that Cougar) and let you live your own life. for just a measly $45 a day, i was still able to send a balikbayan box or two back home from time to time. now that am a full-time salaried employee? bleeeh.
Orlando was a dream job location then. but it already provided me glimpses of holding the fort - what with salespeople mostly on the road most of the time, leaving me to my own devices in the office (Napster!!!). punch out at 5, drive around, get home just in time to watch Friends and Seinfeld, and do it all again tomorrow. no wonder i got fat.
and in keeping with the lone wolf theme, i was the last employee there when we closed the Orlando office and moved to New York. i remember holding the company signboard and tossing it in the back seat, and drove away playing "New York State of Mind".
i count myself lucky to have been taken by the company on a permanent basis despite the economic ills brought about 9/11. all the crazy shit it created (paranoid and gung-ho Yanks masquerading as patriots, stupid airline security policies, the Iraq mess, the immigration chokehold, no salary raises since) i barely squlame ... sorry, squarely blame on those jackasses who flew the planes in the towers. thanks a lot, jerks. i hope those 77 virgins are actually AIDS-infected cryogenically-frozen spinsters.
ok, ok, am rambling.
there were only two of us taken from our Manila office. nobody followed since, except for short stints and those were few and far in between. but since 2 out of 3 of the current personnel are Pinoys, then hell, i consider this the Manila Extension office.
three people making up an office seem pathetic. would you rather be a jack of all trades, enjoying a bit more freedom and leeway in your working environment, or be a cog in the big machine, neutered by strict policies but only saddled with specific tasks and responsibilities? even i am torn on that one.
so here i was, having the whole week and the office to myself. maybe if i were younger i'd skip to watch a movie (yeah you know who you are!). but no, there's too many calls and problems to analyze to even consider going to lunch. ok, that's a bit extreme but you know what i mean.
despite the novelty of being alone (means i can play Crystal Method at a non-dog audio level), i look forward to have my colleagues back next week.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
cinema petit
there's an iFilm article about Brad Bird - sorry, Oscar winner Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles, The Iron Giant) - bemoaning the death of the cinema experience in a 2005 Pixar lecture. it mentions how he "hopes the theatrical experience won't completely go away", and he is placing the blame on that on the onset of technology that includes iPods and on-demand movie downloads. i could say that this same wave of progress of the last 10 years allowed him to create the wonderful movies he is credited with, no?
Bird yearns for the days of his youth, where people used to line up and see the show, but now "... we have made it so that on opening day you can see a film on a big screen, or on a crappy screen, or a screen that is a bootleg on your computer [inches] big. To me it’s diminishing the show experience."
i agree with Bird for the most part, but i also agree that on-demand technology is very much a given. there's no way to stop that monster. the difference now is how you choose to watch your films. a big reason why people insist on downloading and watching on crappy screens (even though that crappy screen costs $400) is a revolution against the business model - movies and music - and why downloading has been a hot button issue for this new century. they'd rather choose songs they want rather than a full album that's 90% unlistenable. they'd rather download some movie (either waiting a few days after opening) than pay $12 in the theater (that's New York prices, and i am not traveling to the sticks just to save $4).
i have my own principles on the issue. i still prefer a big screen over a small one, and i would prefer to watch in the comforts of my home rather than go outside (the exceptions being, the movie is an event in itself and i don't mind paying $12). then again, there's a bunch of good movies that came out over the last few years, and i can't afford to be in the moviehouse every week (speak for yourself, Mr. Millionaire Bird), hence, i have a huge backlog of uhm, appropriated media. but getting to watch those, long after the box office receipts have been tallied, is still a joy that i liken to watching it for the first time on the big screen. i have gotten rid of that impulse where you MUST NEED to watch it ahead of everybody else. the blogosphere has pretty much taken care of spoilers.
and it rankles me as well, if i am in the cinema, to have the experience ruined for me. i appreciate going to a state of the art theater and be held in awe for two hours. that means manners and appropriate behavior. though i am not sure if it was appropriate in that one time where Time Bandit and i smuggled Dallas Mutant Texas Crispy Wings in to watch The Guru, but i can say that was an enjoyable experience.
going back to technology, despite what Jobs is smoking and pushing, i still am not convinced that i should buy an iPod Touch to watch my movies. i have no time to convert all movies to Apple's proprietary format, and then strain my eyes for the next couple of hours. it would help, sure, because of my commute. which is why short of opening my laptop on the subway (a sure no-no), i am kind of considering this alternative.
i am okay with buying tickets online (its the only way to guarantee seats these days), but that's for the few movies i make time for. i still prefer to watch in my sorry excuse for a home theater. sure, i'll get a big-ass HDTV down the road, and that still bolsters my principles of enjoying the cinema experience wherever, and in whatever form it makes you happy.
3.5 inch screens? bleeeh.
Bird yearns for the days of his youth, where people used to line up and see the show, but now "... we have made it so that on opening day you can see a film on a big screen, or on a crappy screen, or a screen that is a bootleg on your computer [inches] big. To me it’s diminishing the show experience."
i agree with Bird for the most part, but i also agree that on-demand technology is very much a given. there's no way to stop that monster. the difference now is how you choose to watch your films. a big reason why people insist on downloading and watching on crappy screens (even though that crappy screen costs $400) is a revolution against the business model - movies and music - and why downloading has been a hot button issue for this new century. they'd rather choose songs they want rather than a full album that's 90% unlistenable. they'd rather download some movie (either waiting a few days after opening) than pay $12 in the theater (that's New York prices, and i am not traveling to the sticks just to save $4).
i have my own principles on the issue. i still prefer a big screen over a small one, and i would prefer to watch in the comforts of my home rather than go outside (the exceptions being, the movie is an event in itself and i don't mind paying $12). then again, there's a bunch of good movies that came out over the last few years, and i can't afford to be in the moviehouse every week (speak for yourself, Mr. Millionaire Bird), hence, i have a huge backlog of uhm, appropriated media. but getting to watch those, long after the box office receipts have been tallied, is still a joy that i liken to watching it for the first time on the big screen. i have gotten rid of that impulse where you MUST NEED to watch it ahead of everybody else. the blogosphere has pretty much taken care of spoilers.
and it rankles me as well, if i am in the cinema, to have the experience ruined for me. i appreciate going to a state of the art theater and be held in awe for two hours. that means manners and appropriate behavior. though i am not sure if it was appropriate in that one time where Time Bandit and i smuggled Dallas Mutant Texas Crispy Wings in to watch The Guru, but i can say that was an enjoyable experience.
going back to technology, despite what Jobs is smoking and pushing, i still am not convinced that i should buy an iPod Touch to watch my movies. i have no time to convert all movies to Apple's proprietary format, and then strain my eyes for the next couple of hours. it would help, sure, because of my commute. which is why short of opening my laptop on the subway (a sure no-no), i am kind of considering this alternative.
i am okay with buying tickets online (its the only way to guarantee seats these days), but that's for the few movies i make time for. i still prefer to watch in my sorry excuse for a home theater. sure, i'll get a big-ass HDTV down the road, and that still bolsters my principles of enjoying the cinema experience wherever, and in whatever form it makes you happy.
3.5 inch screens? bleeeh.
Monday, March 03, 2008
Sunday, March 02, 2008
resume impossible
ever since the wife started watching Food Network, i've always been kind of up-to-date as to what's going on in that channel, whether willingly or not. we enjoy watching "the professor" Alton Brown, never miss the Next FN Star Contest, and place bets on who beats Bobby Flay in whatever his next throwdown is. she follows Rachael Ray (whom i make disparaging remarks about), and she turns the tables on me when Giada is on. of course, we can't watch it all the time because (1) you won't have time for anything else and (2) you tend to get hungry watching all that food getting prepared and plated.
so it did come as a big surprise when the news came out that newcomer chef (on FN at least) Robert Irvine was fired from the network. Irvine, a huge ex-soldier, has a show, Dinner Impossible - each episode has him whipping up food under certain staged challenges - and we follow it enough to know who the hell he is. and it turns out the cut Englishman isn't who the hell he is. he never graduated from Leeds University, he never cooked in the White House, and he never (personally) prepared Princess Diana's wedding cake. FN tried to do as much damage control as they could, editing past episodes that reference his padded resume, and keeping the press away from the man. and of course, firing him as soon as possible ("not renewing the contract" is the euphemism).
well, i guess being fired counts as a blessing for him, because another Robert Irvine ended up differently.
this isn't to say the man cannot cook. and his military background would be an asset in the catering/restaurant business. i daresay the contestants from Hell's Kitchen would rather toil for Irvine than that screaming banshee Gordon Ramsay.
but i guess, if all else fails, with those big guns, he could always open his own gym, no?
so it did come as a big surprise when the news came out that newcomer chef (on FN at least) Robert Irvine was fired from the network. Irvine, a huge ex-soldier, has a show, Dinner Impossible - each episode has him whipping up food under certain staged challenges - and we follow it enough to know who the hell he is. and it turns out the cut Englishman isn't who the hell he is. he never graduated from Leeds University, he never cooked in the White House, and he never (personally) prepared Princess Diana's wedding cake. FN tried to do as much damage control as they could, editing past episodes that reference his padded resume, and keeping the press away from the man. and of course, firing him as soon as possible ("not renewing the contract" is the euphemism).
well, i guess being fired counts as a blessing for him, because another Robert Irvine ended up differently.
this isn't to say the man cannot cook. and his military background would be an asset in the catering/restaurant business. i daresay the contestants from Hell's Kitchen would rather toil for Irvine than that screaming banshee Gordon Ramsay.
but i guess, if all else fails, with those big guns, he could always open his own gym, no?
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