Halloween Party

After closing up the store, the gang (consisting of me, Dean, Gig, Vin, Dino, Jason, Alex, Ralph and Charles) trooped to a nice condo where Carl waited (I imagined while smoking a stogie and wearing a satin red smoking jacket and matching slippers). It was our version of a Halloween party. We didn't have costumes, but we had a nice, compact and comfy room, KFC fried chicken, soft drinks and liquor, frozen chips and peanuts (EH?), Carl-cooked pasta (which brought out the Italian in me... YUMMY, Carl!) and some games to get frisky with. Later in the night, Ralph put together some sinigang na baboy as a midnight snack (EH?).
Anyway, it was a cool night. Dean was feeling under the weather but it didn't keep out team (with Alex) from DOMINATING the night's two rounds of gaming. MAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, there were intermissions as the smokers had their breaks, I watched TV and enjoyed a nice can of Charm balls (which is ironic given that there's this comic named CHARM which left a bad taste in my mouth).

The Halloween party/Jason's birthday celebration lasted into the wee hours of the morning, and I finally tore myself away at 3 AM along with Dean, Gig and Alex. The rest would stay overnight in the luxurious (albeit messy and crowded) condo.

Happy Halloween everyone! Don't let the bogeyman bite... MAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!!!

Phone Lust Relapse

Yesterday, while walking around Greenhills for anime to take home for the All Souls' Day weekend, I found out that the first next-gen phone has finally reached Philippine stores. It's the Nokia 6600, a wide-bodied phone which looks like a 3310 who got left in the kitchen too long. Anyway, it's slightly smaller than the chunkier Sony Ericsson P800 or the Nokia 7650 and 3650, and feels a whole lot more compact (no things sticking out, or any stylus to get lost). It has a lot of features, of course, the claim to fame being an integrated camera with zoom feature and video recorder. Along with this of course are SMS and MMS features, PDA functions for WAP and mobile internet, Polyphonic tones and JAVA. It's loaded and looks it. Heh.

Anyway, the thing costs 25K in pesos, so it's quite pricey; no surprise since it's just out. While looking around I saw at least one guy taking his spiffy new 6600 home (Grrr).

Now, I'm pretty happy with my current phone, but I can't resist lusting after this new doodad. Perhaps sometime next year, when the price goes down below the 20k level. But then, it's either this or an Angel Ace issue. Heh-heh-heh... heh... Hmm.

The Scariest Thing I've Seen So Far...


Atlas Publications' CHARM. Simply the most hideous excuse for a local comic yet released. It's so bad, it's not even funny. It's SAD.

Usually when we see a new comic, we are giddy as schoolkids. Yep, we laugh at any mistakes and unintentional funnies, but in the end we give what is due, and if the art and story are cool, we'll support it to no end. I'd want a copy to add to my library of local comic releases.

But CHARM...

My gosh, I won't even give it the dignity of being called CRAP.

I don't even want to keep a copy, even for posterity. I don't want it in my room.

This is base, tasteless, utterly grotesque and putrid garbage, and it makes it all the more horrid that it comes from Atlas (but then, I expect little from these people, despite ATX being a respectable release).

Why do I say this?

CHARM is a WITCH rip-off. Blatant rip-off. You have a team of witch girls with various powers. The art style is obviously copying the Witch style. Just take away ANY sense of personality, style or charisma. Just take carbon paper, give to a talentless hack and there you have it. The designs are a disturbing combination of pa-sexy anime and the Witch style.

Now, if CHARM was just copying the Witch style, it wouldn't warrant this outburst from me.

But the thing is, there's more.

The writing, the very concept of the story, is tasteless and OBSCENE. The very origin of the girls, and the way it is treated and revealed, is sick and I really am amazed that any sane publisher or editor would even consider this for Young Girls.

Details? Well, suffice to say it involves women being IMPREGNATED by severed fingerss and then being burst open, dissolves, eaten by ants, etc. Add to this TOTALLY EMOTIONLESS and ridiculous writing and NO COMMAND WHATSOEVER OF ENGLISH GRAMMAR SKILLS just adds to simply what I see as the most loathsome local release I've seen yet. This is a bloody, stinking smear on the medium.

FUCKING HORRIBLE.

If I met the artist and writer, I would tell them to their face their work is an INSULT to the medium and I am amazed they let their names be credited in this trash. Whoever okayed this for publication should be FIRED. If I am given a copy of this book, I'd use it to wipe DOG SHIT off the ground.

Want to see it for yourself? Get ready for a laugh and then the urge to bathe later.

DAMN.

Sigh.

Scary...

The Siglo deadline is just around the corner and I am nowhere near finishing yet...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Now that's horror! GAH...

Need... caffeine...

Haunted Office

"Walang third eye..." (There is no third eye)

These lines were rasped by actor Joel Torre in the old Filipino horror ghost story film, Hiwaga sa Balete Drive. For some reason I've always remembered it (maybe because of Torres' cheezy delivery) and that's what I usually say when I hear ghost stories. Pretty much because I don't think I have one. Or if I do, it's firmly closed. I've yet to see a ghost, or any spooky apparition, even during times when people around me are sensing or seeing phantoms, I never see anything beyond my own imagined spooks.

Years ago, while shooting a short film for a college subject, some friends and I spent the night in a decrepit hut in a dark ricefield at the University of the Philippines. Throughout the night, our cameras kept dying for no reason, the viewfinders 'blocked' by unseen hands. Some of my friends remarked of someone peeping at us constantly from around the corner of the hut. The window of our friend's car shattered for no apparent reason. And while walking home, two of my mates suddenly felt themselves surrounded by shadowy presences.

All throughout this spooky time I saw NOTHING.

While staying at my house years ago doing our thesis, one of my classmates remarked seeing a person outside the window, in the yard (at the time, the space was an open garden with wide spaces), apparently a spirit. I never saw anything, and today my sister's house is built on this spot. My friend (who has a third eye, supposedly) also said that he saw people in the house who weren't flesh and blood.
I've lived in my family's house for more than fifteen years. Never saw a single unexplained figure, or phantom apparition. I can probably say that my house really isn't haunted; nor is it a place where spirits or elementals (as the rumors go) can stay since there are people living, it's a place of life and activity, and I guess none of us have a third eye.

Anyway, this talk of ghosts and spooks came up not only because Halloween is just around the corner and its the All Souls' Day weekend... it's also because of some creepy stories floating around the office.

A few days ago, when we started working late, some of our office staff began saying that they've been seeing... figures walking around the place. The VERY place where we work. The very area where I am RIGHT NOW typing this entry. The reports have said that the apparition is that of a tall, white lady with long hair. Some have said that the figure looked real, while another has said that the ghost looked blurry and indistinct.

Last night, another officemate who worked late said that he heard and saw children running around the place, seeing the top of a phantom child's head passing through the various dividers and cubicles.

So what's it about? Was our office the scene of a brutal slaying? Was it once a Japanese torture chamber? A setting of a tragic death whose memories have lingered on years after? I have no idea. I've worked here for more than a month, and have stayed late twice. Haven't seen anything. Haven't heard ghostly children laughing or scurrying about. Haven't had any chilling Juon moments (that creepy Japanese film is actually coming to theaters soon) yet... not that I am looking forward to that, mind you.

Oh well. I guess when you have it, you have it. If you don't... well... I enjoy hearing ghost stories.

What was that..? Footsteps? Nah. Just my imagination.

Heh-heh... Happy Halloween, people.

Good Morning...

Oh, look. Sunlight.

Still at the office. Guess I can go home now.

Good night. Will be taking the rest of the day off.

Hopefully I can do Siglo.

Yawn. Later.

Status

Days left to Siglo deadline: 4

Number of pages finished in my 10-page story: 0

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Working on a pitch right now which has me at the office instead of at home, doing pages. DAMN where did all the time go? For some reason though I am not really that tense... a calm before the storm? An acceptance of the inevitable? The numbnes that precedes... disaster?

Not a chance. Heh.

Where to Go to find Go-Go...

If Chiaki doesn't win 'Best Villain' and 'Best Fight' in next year's MTV Movie Awards, there is no justice in this world.

If you're wondering where I get all my cool pics of Chiaki Kuriyama, then wonder no more.

Chiaki Kuriyama Fandom

This cool fan page has tons of stuff on Go-Go, including a scan of a People magazine article on Chiaki, some really nice pics of Go Go Yubari from a Japanese mag called HIHO (which includes her in a Crazy 88 black suit which wasn't seen in the movie), links to videos of the Kill Bill premieres and press events with the cast, and more. That should be enough info to satisfy anyone looking into this hot new star.