a-ni-ma-tion!
I’ve been very busy watching anime’s and reading manga’s for couple of weeks. Last last week, I watched Appleseed Ex Machina and Afro Samurai. If you love Animatrix, I recommend you to watch Appleseed Ex Machina; and if you’re the Kill Bill type, you should watch Afro Samurai.
Appleseed Ex Machina is an anime film that was directed and produced by John Woo (take note, John Woo!). It’s a love story of Deunan and Briareros. Both are members of E.S.W.A.T, fighting for peace and order on a city that survived World War III. It’s a futuristic city that used vast aritificial intelligence, and since half the human population of the city survived, they lived along with bioroids (genetically engineered humans) — Briareros is one of them. John Woo once again proves himself as a master of action movies. The fighting scenes totally rocks and the characters were still very much like from the manga. But of course, with very fine details of colors and shadow effects — somewhat like a mix of anime art and Pixar 
Afro Samurai is also an animated film based from manga, and casts were
voiced by hollywood stars (Samuel L. Jackson as Afro, Ron Perlman, and Kelly Hu). The story only revolves on the “Number One” band. It was said that the one who possessed the band will rule out the world. Afro’s father wore the Number One band but was challenged by a gunman called “Justice”. Afro was then a child when he saw his father lost and brutally killed by Justice right before his eyes. Hence, vengeance was the only reason why he wanted to get the “Number One” band.
Last week, I’ve watched the live action film of Death Note, The Last Name. I never seen its anime or read its manga series, so I got so interested on its story while I was watching the film. It’s a story about the reaper’s notebook. Whoever owns it will have the power to command a reaper to kill whoever the owner wrote on the notebook. It’s a kind of film where you have to think while watching, else you won’t know what’s going on.. It’s kind of complicated but there’s a very nice unexpected twist at the end of the film.
I am also hooked with School Rumble series. I first saw it on Channel 2 and
found the main character, Harima Kenji, very funny. He wears long hair, has goatee and mustache, and always wears a sunglass that make him look like a delinquent student. He’s very tough though, but always a shy guy when he’s around with his crush, Tenma. He saved her few years ago from thugs, but then Tenma mistakenly accused him as a pervert. That’s why Harima always wears sunglass for him not to be recognized by Tenma. It’s now their 2nd year in high school, and Tenma no longer remembers the incident. Harima went back to school just to get closer to Tenma. He always have difficulties expressing his love to her. So his grand plan is to deliver his message through manga.
You’ll also get to meet several characters that will make their love story more complicated. I’ve been wanting to know who will end up with, so it’s somehow kind of addicitive. Too bad, it’s only shown every weekends. But I got my daily dose of it by reading its manga (from www.onemanga.com — a haven for manga addicts!).. So you think I go home with tired eyes because of work? Hihihi
TAG: My Fave Four
Thank you mi dear Chuvaness for the tag I am so honored to be tagged by you.. hehehe.
Here’s the rule (as copied and pasted from Chuvaness):
Click copy/paste, type in your answers and tag four people in your lists! Don’t forget to change my answers. Spread it like Love!
1. Four places I go over and over
- Office: to work and to browse Internet (4 websites I go over and over: my blog, everyone on my blogroll, pep.ph, stanxwords.com)
- Home: to eat, watch ch2 cartoons from 9am to 10am (currently Mary and the Secret Garden and Peter Pan), and of course to sleep or rather force myself to sleep.
- Mall: for once in a blue moon window shopping (I only go over and over to either Gateway, Trinoma, or SM North)
- Atrium (Makati): I always HAVE to go here every month to pay housing loan (when will this end?!!!)
2. Four people who e-mails me regularly
- Ms. Cons: for our running CSAT
- Ms. Cons: for our running AHT
- Ms. Cons: for our running KPI
- Friendster: for never ending notification from friends’ updates
3. Four of my favorite places to eat?
- On dining table (with one leg folded and tucked under my other leg).
- On bed (while watching TV)
- On my old workstation (on CRT Team)
- On garden table (while sipping tea.. sosyal!)
4. Four places you’d rather be?
- France: so that I can be ala Robert Langdon having adventure on Louvre Musuem
- Cambodia: so that I can be ala Lara Croft as a tomb raider
- Japan: so that I can be ala Kaoru (Samurai X) under a cherry blossom tree waiting for Kenshin Himura (my love)
- Moon: I just want to see the Earth from the moon.
5. Four TV shows I could watch over and over.
- Silence: this is my ever favorite Taiwanovela (starring Vic Zhou and Eun Hye Park)
- Samurai X
- Doraemon
- Art Attack!
6. Four lucky winners ( of this tag..) Pwedeng 5?
- Jannette
- Macapple boy (local version:-))
- Sherlie
- Mami Grace
- Ahnniem
Looking forward to see your answers
another tale to tell
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince will be released July 2009 — bummer! Such a very sad news. I’ve been longing for that film ever since I finished reading the sagas last January.. sigh, sigh, sigh.. But Harry Potter fans still has something to look forward to this year. Rowling has just announced that The Tales of Beedle the Bard will be published for general public and will be out on December 2008 .
The book was introduced first on Deathly Hallows. It was described as a famous literary children’s book in the world of wizardry. Dumbledore gave an original copy of the Tale of Beedle the Bard to Hermione on where she found clues from The Tale of the Three Brothers to defeat You-Know-Who.
Rowling includes 5 tales on the said book.. “The Wizard and the Hopping Pot”, “The Fountain of Fair Fortune”, “The Warlock’s Hairy Heart”, “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump”, and the “The Tale of the Three Brothers”. For synopses, click here.
On the side note, not only the fictitious book “Beedle the Bard” is coming to a reality. Emma Watson is becoming more and more of Hermione. She has gotten straight A’s on the three A-level exams: English Literature, History of Art, and Geography!
You think she drunk Felix Felicis to be in such a luck?
For detailed story on Emma Watson, click here.
sweet tooth
I’ve been suffering tootache for ages! Recently, I just got 3 of my molar teeth topped with permanent silver filling.. and, my dentist said that there’ll be 3 more to go on my next vist.. Gosh.. that is so stressful! Worse, #38 (a.k.a. left wisdom tooth) really needs to be extracted which will need minor surgery..
#36 is no more, then eventually #37 will be an island.. poor #37, I’m sure it’ll be sad and overused 
After I got my teeth x-rayed, I met up again with Ces and Claude. We’re supposed to have a reunion with our friend Sharon who just got here from Singapore. But due to unavoidable circumstances, she wasn’t able to meet with us. And so, the 3 of us indulged ourselves with a good meal and a great dessert at Conti’s. Ces and I ordered this Chicken Ala Kiev.. looks good tastes even better
And despite of my tooth misery, I still got to used them to sunk in to these sweet desserts. Ces got White Chocolate Torte, which is great. I ordered Conti’s bestseller Mango Brava, which is huge and superb. And Claude had this heavenly sweet Turtle Pie, which is superlative!
I was so full that I look so fat on this mirror shot. I got to find an angle that will make my bulges disappear.
So how about this? Winner!! Wootwoo
I always enjoyed the company of Ces and Claude. We could always talk everything under the sun. Even Sports! Ces is an avid fan of Tennis. She knew all the star players such as Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova, and russian players with surnames ending with ***vich or ***kovich. We also talked about Beijing Olympics, of course, and thought if the gold digger Michael “the mutant” Phelps (as Claude said.. hehehe) will bring home 8 bacons.
movie, pizza, and madness
I was so toxic last Sunday. It’s my off but I haven’t slept yet after workless 8.5 hours of night shift. My stomach ached (very minor gastro, I think) but have to force myself to deal with my commitment with Ces and Claude — which is to watch A Very Special Love. A very feel-good-movie.. a bit cheezy, but I have to admit that John Lloyd is damn sooo hot on this film.. he just caused more butterflies to flutter wildly on my already upset stomach.
Before we watched the movie, we ate Pesto with Hungarian Sausage and Putanesca Pizza at Napoli’s. The Pizza is a must-try.. so yummy
We shopped.. I mean, they shopped. ‘Coz all I bought was this hat from F&H. One of my best buy coz it only cost P100!!
Just a reminder, never shop on Sunday especially if all the stores on the mall are on sale. And most especially if you haven’t gotten a sleep for the last 24 hours. I started to feel my eye bags sagging way down to my cheeks. It’s madness!! The mall was just too crowded to shop. Everyone’s hands were all over the clothes or flipping hangers through its rack! You really need to have the energy to fight against the crowd. I feel like I lost a battle..
art appreciation
I couldn’t take my eyes off of this painting.. It’s very dramatic, sacred, and humble, all at the same time.. yet there’s something regal and glorious on it.. and it look so freaking real!! I was in awe when I saw this painting and it gave me a love-at-first-sight feeling. That’s why I didn’t leave the place without having a picture with it.
But my all time favorite painting is The Birth of Venus by Boticelli. It’s an art of pure beauty and innocence.. so captivating.. and such a super goddess..
And so because of my liking for this painting, I made my own.. Okay, go ahead, shoot me dead.. But I did the very best I could.. I did this 6 years ago. It was my first and only painting, and I’ve done it just by using 5 paints (orange, brown, green, violet, and white). You have to admit that there’s some kind of similarity, right? right? right?
Robert Langdon (The Da Vinci Code) said that Leonardo Da Vinci is a feminist. I know why. That is because a woman is a piece of art. I myself can be a feminist — I love women. So here are few of my picks of most beautiful celebrities that I’ve sketched.. hope you could recognize them
Have you been RickRolled?
I got excited when I heard that a teaser for Harry Potter 6 was released. So I went to You Tube and found several entries already posted for it.. but then I got RickRolled! Some of us may have gotten RickRolled when they were trying to see a sex scandal of britney, paris, megan fox.. and all they got to see is Rick Astley’s 80’s classic video “Never gonna give you up”. Very disappointing, is it? Hahahaha.
Anyways, the real Rick Astley just recently held a concert here in Manila and I’ve heard that pinoy version Rick Astley, Roderick Paulete, got to perform “Together Forever” with him — Rick and Dick Together Forever (lol)
Photoshop How To’s – Diffused Background
Want to focus a subject with a diffused background? I called it MACRONIZING! You can actually do it on your digicams by setting the camera on Macro (the flower icon that can be seen on the display screen or can be one of the buttons on your camera). Depending on the specs on your digicam, the focus may vary. This is very useful on small objects as if you’re magnifying or ‘macronizing’ a certain object.
But if you want a large object to be your focus, and if you don’t have high-tech-high-specs camera, Photoshop can do the trick. All we need to do is just diffuse the background to emphasize your subject to be your main focus. This will create a dreamy effect. To know how to, click here
Appleseed Ex Machina is an anime film that was directed and produced by John Woo (take note, John Woo!). It’s a love story of Deunan and Briareros. Both are members of E.S.W.A.T, fighting for peace and order on a city that survived World War III. It’s a futuristic city that used vast aritificial intelligence, and since half the human population of the city survived, they lived along with bioroids (genetically engineered humans) — Briareros is one of them. John Woo once again proves himself as a master of action movies. The fighting scenes totally rocks and the characters were still very much like from the manga. But of course, with very fine details of colors and shadow effects — somewhat like a mix of anime art and Pixar 
voiced by hollywood stars (Samuel L. Jackson as Afro, Ron Perlman, and Kelly Hu). The story only revolves on the “Number One” band. It was said that the one who possessed the band will rule out the world. Afro’s father wore the Number One band but was challenged by a gunman called “Justice”. Afro was then a child when he saw his father lost and brutally killed by Justice right before his eyes. Hence, vengeance was the only reason why he wanted to get the “Number One” band.
Last week, I’ve watched the live action film of Death Note, The Last Name. I never seen its anime or read its manga series, so I got so interested on its story while I was watching the film. It’s a story about the reaper’s notebook. Whoever owns it will have the power to command a reaper to kill whoever the owner wrote on the notebook. It’s a kind of film where you have to think while watching, else you won’t know what’s going on.. It’s kind of complicated but there’s a very nice unexpected twist at the end of the film.