Filler

I've decided to stay home today. It was kinda late and I was still in the house, and there was this bit of news from my mom that the authorities found four BOMBS in a nearby mall... luckily they were found before they were detonated. Mom apparently found this out from somewhere or someone other than the news since they aren't mentioning this anywhere. Media blackout, I guess. No one wants to cause a panic. I wonder though if it's true... or just gossip and hearsay.
Anyway, I'm indoors for now, watching Saturday night TV, and it's not bad at all. I'm really getting into Ghost Hunters, that kooky show about part-time paranormal investigators looking for ghosts and hauntings in the US. It's pretty cool that every now and then they pick up weird stuff on their monitors and cameras, such as a chair being moved or someone getting bowled over by 'spirits'. Certainly better than watching bad actors emote ALL THE TIME in local spook shows.

I'm also loading up my new AV700 with videos; the recording works like a charm, capturing video and sound far, far better than the old PC capture card. So far I've loaded Ninja Scroll and Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. I'll probably stick in loads of anime and other stuff to give a variety. I don't intend to fill it up totally- gotta keep several gigs free for that odd recording need every now and then.

Gosh I love lazy, long weekends. They keep me sane and happy. Heh.

Bonding


Daniel Craig- The Next Bond?

It's probably a fairly well-known fact that Pierce Brosnan won't be in the next Bond film, due both to his age (early fifties) and his demands for higher and higher salaries. I consider myself a Bond fan of the Golden Age of 007. I miss Sean Connery's gruff but ever suave Bond, or Roger Moore's gentleman rake with the lethal skills. Still, we have to move on.
Unfortunately, Timothy Dalton was HORRIBLE... he growled all his lines and the 'modern' take of Bond for his two installments- the utterly boring Living Daylights and the totally un-Bondish License to Kill was a traversty (regardless of how hot Cary Lowell was). The best I've ever seen Dalton was in The Rocketeer as the villain, so perhaps that's why I didn't like him.

As for Remington Steele... I'm mixed with Brosnan. I kinda liked a couple of his movies; Goldeneye wasn't as horrible as the Dalton films, and Tomorrow Never Dies got a bit of the old Bond flavor back with the classic maniacal villain (Media Mogul Peter Carver, played by Jonathan Pryce). Still, I always found Brosnan's Bond a bit too self-assured and too confident. Every stunt and action scene seemed to play by the numbers and just happen.

And now, we're in limbo. So far, the apparent frontrunner is Daniel Craig, whom I really really really really can't see James Bond in. He just doesn't have the look. I remember him from Tomb Raider (he played Lara Croft's rival/love interest) and while he was a cool action guy, he's not a suave agent-type. Supposedly his role in the recent film Layer Cake shows a bit of his Bond-ness, but I haven't seen that. Oh well. Who knows... I don't think anything is in stone yet. Maybe Clive Owen (Sin City) will still bite, though he has already refused the role. Gosh. The intrigue and goings-on of the making of Bond 22 could be a spy thriller in itself. More on this as it happens.

The next Bond movie is supposedly a remake and modernization of the classic Casino Royale, and will revitalize the franchise by focusing on a younger Bond and see him through the events that turn him into the veteran agent that we all know and love to watch. Look for this in 2006 or so. Maybe.

Awesome Ad


Kasumi faces her last and most dangerous clone.

Just downloaded and saw the new TV commercial for Dead or Alive 4 on the Xbox360. Thankfully, there's none of the crappy sexual innuendo and horny college boy humor from previous ads for the series (She Kicks High... FEH). The spot is composed completely of CG animation, focusing mainly on the battle against the evil DOATEC Corporation by the game's ninja characters. There are scenes with ninja heroine Kasumi facing the game's mysterious end boss, Alpha 152; her half-sister and rival Ayane getting her trademark bandanna blown off as she's casting a ninpo spell; and ninja bad boys Ryu Hayabusa and Hayate battling DOATEC troops. In the middle of spectacular flaming scenery, opera singer/new DOATEC head Helena is seen walking regally towards an apparent climactic final confrontation...

WOW. I need this game. NOW. Can't wait to get my Xbox360. DAMN.

EDIT: To see this exciting TV spot yourself, download the vid by clicking here.

Tech Toy


My NEW Phone!!!

It's the AV700, and it's INCREDIBLE!!! I knew I had to give up my XDA II MIni when I laid my eyes on it. How can you resist that HUGE, 7-inch screen?! Yes, you heard that right... 7 INCHES! Yeah, I need a clutchbag to bring it around in, and I can't really put it on my belt or my pants will sag, but DARN isn't that screen lovely? Oh, and it can't get a signal worth shit. But DARN it has a huge screen. Well, with 40 gigs of space in the hard drive, I don't really have time to call or text anyone when I'm busy watching vids, right? MWAHAHAHAHA!!!

I'm kidding of course.

The device above is the Archos AV700, and it's a portable Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and player. I wasn't pulling legs with the 7-inch screen though. I read the review in M/PH (a local tech mag) and just felt this was right for me. All week I've been troubling over three possible things to get for myself- it was a toss-up between a Playstation Portable or PSP, the new I-Pod (with video) and an Archos PVP (Personal Video Player).

I got thinking... the PSP is really nice and the price has gone down a LOT... but the games STILL aren't worth playing for me. There's Metal Gear Acid, but it's a darn CARD game. Not even Solid Snake can make me like a card game. Games on UMD are horribly expensive (at least 3K a pop), though you can now get games directly recorded on memory sticks from certain stores... it still doesn't change the fact that I still don't like any of the games and I don't really play games outside the house. So... even though I was tempted when I saw an actual PSP on display with Ridge Racer running on it amazingly at Megamall, I wasn't swayed. Give me a Tekken, DOA or a Streetfighter III title, Final Fantasy or something worth my time, and maybe I'll spring, Sony.

The new Apple I-Pod looks pretty awesome. It's thin, the screen looks great and you can bring 60 gigs of video and music around. Awesome! However, it has been made clear to me that the new I-Pod is first and foremost still a music player with video tagged on since the battery only lasts for little more than two hours playing video. Anyway, in that case, my O2 Mini still works perfectly as my portable video player, and I don't need to expend the extra effort to bring it around. basically, the I Pod just clones my phone's functions for a bit of cool factor and extra weight. It was a nice dream but really, nope.

So we came to the Archos PVP. I finally decided on it thanks to the recording capability. I can finally give my PC's old, old video capture card and the now weirdly-reduced Hard Drive a rest. The AV700 can record from TV, VCR, DVD and other sources simply by plugging in the docking station, inserting the proper AV-Ins and letting her rip. The resulting AVI files are crisp and easily convertible via PocketDIVXEncoder for mobile formats. The only problem here is that video copied from 'legit' DVDs can't be played on anything other than the AV700 itself, thanks to copy protection (I'll have to get special stuff to get around this problem... or just get pirated DVDs aplenty). There are tons more options on it aplenty, including on-board video editing, music and photos and more.
Bottom line is, I love video and recording video and all that jazz, and the AV700 gives it to me in Spades. It's something I will actually use, and use a lot. And that's what really counts when you get tech toys. And I can actually bring it along for trips with a library of movies to watch in a snap. And yes, I can now watch movies in the bathroom. HOHO!

An early Christmas present, and hopefully not the last. Heh.

Nursing

Early today, I rode with my mom to my drop-off point and we were listening on the radio to how a lot of hospitals are closing down because of the lack of doctors and nurses to man them. Mom was pretty worked up today and exclaiming how this all served the crappy hospitals and doctors right after all the years of abusing nurses. She said that today, while doctors earn huge salaries, nurses earn barely minimum wage in exchange for doing all the dirty work and facing abusive treatment from pompous docs. Nowadays, nurses are in big demand overseas, earning hundreds of dollars a day. That's why there's a big migration of nurses, and even doctors now passing themselves as nurses, to work abroad.

The stream of thought eventually got Mom telling of how, when she was a nurse in her younger days, she got into a big fight with a patient's relative. Apparently, the argument got so bad the other woman started hurling expletives at my mom, particularly "PUTANG INA MO!" (which basically calls your mother a whore) This got my Mom angry as well and hurled back 'Don't call my mother a whore!" The opponent then threw an ashtray at her, and in response Mom threw back a vase. She resigned soon after that.

Ah, Mom. No one else like her.

X Marks the Spot

Today, the first next-gen gaming console arrived in the U.S. as Microsoft's XBox 360 hit store shelves. The ultra-powerful game console beat the upcoming Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Revolution to the punch; both opposing consoles aren't due for release until well into 2006.
For now, early adopters will surely be going for the new uber-toy, opting for either a basic set or the premium bundle which comes with a 20 Gigabyte Hard Drive. The graphics on the 360 games indeed look awesome, as seen in online videos and reviews on the launch games.
The earliest games available on the XBox360 include the racer Project Gotham Racing 3, the mature First Person Action Adventure Condemned (which puts you on the trail of some truly twisted serial killers) and the shooter Perfect Dark Zero.

It's a no-brainer that I'm getting myself the console, but I'm going to hold off until Dead or Alive 4 becomes available, and when the cost settles from the sure-to-be-overblown early price tag.

Darn, I'll have to make room in the ol' gaming wing again. Sigh. Man, but that's gonna be a pleasurable chore. Heh.

DOA Movie


The DOA girls. In a row. With swords. EH?

The movie adaptation of the Dead or Alive series of videogames is well underway. I've just seen the trailer, and it seems pretty tongue-in-cheek and comedic, playing on the expected girl-power theme of the movie. The bad thing is that the characters don't seem to 'feel' like the actual characters from the game- they just all seem to be generic tough/sexy girls, which is kind of a shame. Still, the fighting scenes look pretty cool (Corey Yuen's fight choreography should shine through no matter what) so it should be entertaining. It does at least show the girls doing lots of fighting in little clothing (of course, there's the ol' ambush on the girl while she's fresh from the shower scene), so I'm game. Heh.

I would have preferred though something even remotely close to the ninja-centric action of the game's plot, with additions of some of the other characters into the mix. What is coming out though seems to be a whole different monster. Oh, well. Whatever. At least there's the obligatory and much-hyped beach volleyball scene. Heh.

Dead or Alive the movie has been described as 'Charlie's Angels meets Enter the Dragon', mixing sexy ladies and martial arts. The movie will be directed by Corey Yuen (Drunken Master ) and stars Devon Aoki as ninja girl Kasumi, Shane Kosugi as videogame ninja hero Ryu Hayabusa, Holly Valance as Christy the Assassin/bounty hunter, Jaime Pressly as wrestling star Tina Armstrong and Kevin Nash (WCW, TNA) as her over-protective father Bass. Other cast members include Natassia Malthe (last seen in the Elektra movie), Eric Roberts and Robin Shou.


The promised Beach Volleyball scene is IN.

Another Con


Cebu played host to this year's Advertising Congress.

Over the weekend I attended the Awards Night of the 2005 Advertising Congress. It was a tiring but fun way to spend time, although it did take it's toll on my stamina. The actual Ad Congress actually took place over the entire week, but I only went to attend the finale. Took a nice, short flight over via Cebu Pacific Airlines and finally had my first vist to Cebu.
Cebu's a nice place- it actually reminds me a lot of Manila, save for the occasional Cebuano name and the way they don't use jeepneys for their... well, jeepneys. The place has a rural feel to it, which is refreshing in many ways.



We all stayed at the Waterfront Hotel, which is one of the nicest hotels I've seen locally. Too bad I only really got to stay there barely two days. And most of that time was spent working on our stuff for the AdCon's Awards Night, preparing our stuff for the parade which was the highlight of the event.


We gorged ourselves on great food at a nearby restaurant. YUM!

Sadly I wasn't able to go around much, but I did partake of a feast at a nice restaurant called The Golden Cowrie. We had sisig, tinola,tuna fillets, baked scallops, ribs, crispy pata and MORE. I mean, the food seemed to go on forever. It was bliss. After a while my jaw just got tired of working and I settled into a nice buzz. Well, we needed that energy for the night. The opening parade of the Awards Night had several competing agencies show off costumes done to the theme of 'The World's Great Cities of Advertising", and we got Mumbai, India. Our idea was basically a walking Kama Sutra, and we had these large boards with images of the erotic artworks (properly censored, of course) with holes for our faces. Several dancers showering the place with petals and drummers with body paint completed our entourage. How did we do? To put it simply, we were a hit with the crowds and we took home first place for the night.
The fun didn't end there, and our agency took home several awards, ranging from a Gold to a couple of Silvers and several Bronzes. Not as much as some of the bigger ad agencies, but it was a GREAT showing compared to our last AdCon. Bottom line, we went away happy.



We celebrated at the Hotel Casino's restaurant, pretty much starving after the several-hour awards night. By the time I lugged myself to bed, it was about 3 AM. We all got up at around 7:30 AM to check out and get ready for the flight home just before lunchtime.

All in all, a tiring, whirlwind weekend that was, thankfully, extremely rewarding and memorable. Here's looking forward to the next AdCOn in 2007!