Reading Meme

Can anybody tell me what a meme is to begin with? Ah, well, here goes with this one.

tagged by amy: books
total number of books owned.
I'm not sure; I've lost count, but my collection fills up a whole wall of shelves.
last book i read.
Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey. Actually, for me, the correct term is "re-read," as this was probably the 8th or 9th time that I've gone through this book. When I like a book, I tend to read it over and over again; "The Lord of the Rings" I've read probably about 15 times over.
The book is part of the Harper Hall trilogy. Set in the world of Pern, where dragons flame and sear the menace called Thread out of the sky. Drums is about Piemur, an apprentice harper, and focuses on his coming of age.
last book I bought
The Girl Who Owned a City by O.T. Nelson. I picked this up at Books for Less, a great place to find books. I haven't read it, but I was intrigued by the premise.
A plague has swept through the world, leaving alive only those younger than 12 years. The book apparently focuses on the efforts of a girl to bring a semblance of order into the apocalyptic world she lives in.
I'll probably go through it after the book below.
currently reading.
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Set several centuries before the current Pern storyline, the book focuses on a tragedy, an epidemic which kills people across Pern, and on the courage of Moreta, the Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr, to save those who remain. Once more, I'm re-reading this book.
5 books that mean a lot to me that i really like.
Oboy, like A, this is tough, because I've read a lot of good books. And, like A, I'll cheat a little by including entire series of books by the same author.
1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien. What more is there to say? It's the penultimate in fantasy, and a source of inspiration and courage for me personally. My favorite character, Gandalf the Grey, has influenced me in more ways than one.
2. Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander. Part of the very good Prydain Chronicles, Taran Wanderer focuses on Taran's journey through Prydain to search for clues to his origins, and along the way, he meets the various people of Prydain, and learns bits and pieces about life.
3. Goodbye, Mr. Chips by James Hilton. One of the reasons I became a teacher, Chips is about the experiences of a British master as he goes through life at the turn of the 20th century and beyond.
4. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. The book is actually a collection of stories revolving around a town in Wisconsin, and seen mainly through the eyes of a young boy, Douglas Spaulding. Dandelion Wine covers every topic and theme from romance, from growing old, to friendships that last a lifetime, all in the span of one summer. There is much to be gleaned from its pages.
5. The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff. The book makes the Tao philosophy more understandable by using Pooh as an example of how Tao works in principle. I found it to be very insightful and entertaining. Its sequel, The Teh of Piglet, is also equally good.
Tag 5 people and have them fill this out.
Tin
Lori
Charlie
Cai
Tonichi

A Tale of Two Movies

It's been really hectic, and at the same time, I've been too lazy to write, but I think I will now.

Last weekend, I had the chance to watch both "Mr. and Mrs. Smith," and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

"Smith" was okay, as long as you didn't think too much about whatever implausibilities it had. It was, for me, a "popcorn movie": entertaining, without needing to think too much about it. Pitt and Jolie were interesting as the assassin couple. And okay, there is a reason Angelina is FHM's top sexiest woman for this year, which is one of the reasons why guys will probably dig the movie. That woman is hot.

It has its interesting moments, as well as quotes. The car chase on the freeway, the couple's fight in their house, and the way each of them operated as assassins were some of the moments. I particularly liked the running conversation they were having once they discovered the truth about each other. This stood out:

John Smith: How many? Ok... I'll go first, then. I don't keep exact count, but I'd say, uh, high 50s, low 60s. I mean, I know I've been around the block an all, but...
Jane Smith: 312.
John Smith: What? How?
Jane Smith: Some were two at a time.

All in all, the movie was a fun ride from start to finish.

----

I watched "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" alone, as H hadn't read the book, and I was pretty sure she'd get bored by it.

I was right on the money on that.

I found "Hitchhiker's" to be rather uneven. I liked some of the parts, mainly because they matched what I visualized when I read the book. Other parts were downright boring, and the love interest between Arthur and Trillian seemed too contrived.

Still, what I liked about the movie were the narrative entries from the Guide (complete with animation), Marvin the Paranoid Android (wonderfully voiced by Alan Rickman), and the scenes from the planet Magrathea, where Arthur discovers some surprising truths about the Earth.

But, if you're going to watch the movie, I think it would be best to read the book first. The movie will make more sense that way.


Random clips:

1. They've shown the trailer of "The Chronicles of Narnia." And it rocks!
2. I am very intrigued by "Fantastic Four."
3. I'm also interested in the 4th Harry Potter movie.

Finals' End

Well, the Detroit Pistons gave it their all, and they came up a tad short, losing Game 7, and the championship, to the San Antonio Spurs. Still, considering that the team was labeled as the underdog for the Finals, to reach the 7th game of the best-of-seven series was no easy task.

There were some missteps at the end to seal the Pistons' fate. One was the block by Bowen on Billups, which prevented a possible three-point shot. The other was the inability to contain Ginobili near the end. And, finally, the fact that Tim Duncan appeared to solve his free-throw shooting (he had missed around 12 in games 5 and 6), and that he was doing some stellar shooting, all added up to the Spurs' winning.

C'est la vie.

Whew!

This start of the school year has been unusually tiring. At first, I thought I was wearing down; after all, I have been teaching for 13 years almost without a break. But then, my co-teachers, some of them much younger than I, also complained of being tired, and I knew it wasn't just fatigue that was slowing us down.

H suggested it might be the quality of students that I have this year; there have been some instances where I would scratch my head in consternation, due to errors, grammatical and otherwise, that I'd not seen in previous years. Can you imagine a freshman spelling 'period' as 'perioud'? Not me, until this year.

However, it's not that, either. It would take a really bad class to bog me down, and I've had worse in the past.

The culprit that remained was the weather.

I've noticed that the weather has been rather screwy the past few days; sometimes, it would be scorching hot, only to rain hard later in the afternoon and evening. This sudden changes in temperature and humidity must be affecting me; I'm pretty sure in my case. From experience, weather changes have not been good for my system.

It seems, though, that we're in some in-between area as far as weather is concerned: it's hot enough for summer, but it's cloudy enough to trap the heat, making the humidity to be truly terrible. I'm not sure if that's scientifically correct, though. A? A little help here?

I've made some adjustments, by trying to wear lighter clothing, and trying to stay within the airconditioned confines of the faculty workroom. I'm drinking more fluids now; Gatorade truly quenches that deep-down body thirst (cheap plug). They alleviate the problem a bit, but not by much.

I'm hoping and praying that the weather takes a turn for the better soon, or else I'm going to run out of lighter clothing, or out of money to buy Gatorade.

Being a Father (Blog Plug)

D has some interesting notes about being a father, Father's Day having passed us by. Check them out here.

Too many things on my mind right now to post something long, although several topics are floating around.

"Batman Begins"

H and I caught the last full show at SM City, and sat back to enjoy the show.

And we weren't disappointed. "Batman Begins," in my opinion, has successfully resurrected what was once a moribund franchise, and promises to be the foundation for future movies.

The big difference between this movie and its four predecessors (the good ones by Tim Burton, the disastrous ones by Joel Schumacher) is its focus. I'm not sure where I read it, but someone once wrote that the problem with Burton was that he probably thought he was making a movie about the Joker, with the Batman as supporting cast. This, of course, set the stage for the succeeding three movies; big-name talents were signed to play the villains, and casting Batman wasn't too important, although Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer were good in the role.

Unfortunately, at the same time, the movies became increasingly campy, and paid more attention to over-the-top set design and costumes (remember the Bat-nipples?) rather than concentrating on telling a story. As a result, "Batman and Robin" went down in flames and the franchise was in torpor for almost a decade.

And then "Batman Begins" came along, and, like the phoenix, rose from the ashes to take its place among the good comic book-based movies.

And they did it, not through colorful sets or costumes, but through the telling of a damn-good story. The villains don't dominate the movie as they did in the past; instead, they do what they're supposed to, which is to serve as foils to the hero.

And, of course, there's the adroit selection of good actors to fill in the roles.

Christian Bale played his role to the hilt, both as the fun-loving playboy, and the grim Dark Knight. I didn't know much about him, aside from his role in "Empire of the Sun," when he was a 13-year old, but he seems to give Batman the right touch.

Michael Caine is masterful as Alfred, the faithful butler. He captures the dry wit for which Alfred is known, and he brings the very British-ness to his character.

Liam Neeson reprises his Qui-Gon Jin persona as Henri Ducard, Bruce Wayne's mentor. Ironically, Ducard teaches Wayne the exact opposite of what Qui-Gon taught Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. He does seem to relish this type of role; he pretty much played the same type of character in "Kingdom of Heaven."

Morgan Freeman is one of my favorite actors; he brings a quiet dignity to the roles he plays. Here, he plays Lucius Fox, who is, in a way, Batman's Q.

Ken Watanabe, as Ra's Al Ghul, one of Batman's deadliest enemies (those unfamiliar with him might think of Marvel's Doctor Doom; they're pretty much on the same level), plays the serious role with relish.

Gary Oldman looks a little lost, though, as Lieutenant James Gordon; he normally plays villains, so maybe he's a little disoriented.

Katie Holmes, while playing the love interest (kinda), plays it with a schoolgirl charm, her romance with Tom Cruise notwithstanding. Not much is asked of her, but she plays her role pretty well.

All in all, the movie restored my faith in the franchise (I wouldn't be this effusive with the praise if it didn't, would I? heheheh), and I hope that DC is able to continue bringing out the same quality in the next film (of course, there'll be a sequel.)

Traffic!

The past few days, getting to work has been difficult because of the extraordinary traffic that has been plaguing the Katipunan area. What was once a 15-20 minute drive from my parents' house is now a 1-hour crawl.

One of the problem is the way the route to Ateneo from UP is structured. One must get past several obstacles to get to the campus, although, once inside the campus, the traffic lightens up considerably.

For me, the first roadblock is the intersection at C.P. Garcia (the peripheral road skirting UP) and NIGS. Here two of the unversity security guards have the unenviable task of directing the traffic. At least, however, there are people directing the traffic.

Next is the u-turn junction near Shoppersville. Due to the narrowness of the road, vehicles making the turn must occupy the whole width of Katipunan to complete the turn. However, this is easy to avoid by taking the service road running past Shell and Shoppersville.

The main gridlock is caused by the u-turn in front of National Book Store. There are three sources of vehicles here: first, the u-turn itself, where vehicles are moving diagonally right to enter the campus; second is Gate 2.5 of the campus, where vehicles move diagonally left to avoid those entering the campus; and lastly, the flyover, bringing those coming from Libis and White Plains. Result? Three-way gridlock.

Addtional problems are impatient drivers not wanting to wait, and causing the two-lane u-turn to become a 6-lane junction. Another is the lack of traffic enforcers in the area; I don't think I've seen anybody even trying the past three days.

Lack of discipline, along with the lack of will to enforce the traffic laws add up to a very big mess along Katipunan Ave in the mornings.

It's possible that these are just opening day blues, and maybe the traffic will taper off after a few weeks. If it doesn't, the City and the MMDA have some serious work ahead of them.

Death Traps on the Road

Yesterday, columnist Federico Pascual of the STAR wrote of his near-death experience when he smashed into one of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) concrete blocks which litter the Metro Manila roads. He then wrote of the stupidity of MMDA officials who often place these blocks without rhyme or reason.

From experience, the MMDA is likely to brush his comments off, and probably claim that it was his carelessness as a driver which caused the accident, and not the blocks.

On Commonwealth Ave, there are several of these blockades scattered across the highway. Most of these do not have proper reflectorized signs indicating their presence on the road. It's not much of a problem for those of us who normally travel along Commonwealth, but what about those who don't? In some areas, the blocks are barely visible at night, and if one is going down the highway at a high speed, he or she will not have time to avoid the blocks. Throw in the buses and jeeps which rarely follow traffic rules, it's small wonder that Commonwealth is considered to be one of the most dangerous roads in Metro Manila.

I wonder what it's going to take for the MMDA to wake up and address this problem. I guess they're waiting for that really big accident to happen, and then they can explain to the media why it's not their fault it happened.

Long Weekend...Yippee Skip

Instead of being happy about the declaration of no classes on Monday, I'm slightly irritated, because the announcement comes way too late. People have made plans, and it's going to be difficult for some to change them.

I guess it's an indication of the lack of conviction that our government has, as exemplified by our President. Consider this: June 13 was declared a regular working day two weeks ago, and just 3 days before the 13th, it's declared a holiday? One has to wonder if there are any ulterior motive in making the change, considering the highly charged political atmosphere that currently exists. Is this attempt to curry favor with people? In my case, it simply does the opposite.

School Starts Again

For the High School freshmen, it will be their orientation today and tomorrow. For everybody else, including the teachers, work begins on Wednesday.

With the meetings tomorrow, this will also be my last day of vacation, and, due to severe cash flow problems, I'll be spending it here at my parents' house, surfing and blogging. What fun.

G rode her first service to school today, a blue and silver Revo. To be safe, I tagged along to observe how the driver handles the vehicle. This also meant that since G was the second of four students to be picked up, I also followed the route they took to pick up the other two passengers. It was a bit roundabout, but it seemed pretty safe. As soon as they arrived at Hands at Play, I discreetly watched G and her yaya go into the school; she tends to act up if she knows that her parents are in her area. I went back here shortly afterwards, where I'll be waiting for her to arrive after a busy day in school.

***

I finally got to watch "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" over the weekend. I think I found "Life of Brian" to be a lot funnier; maybe my expectations based on my friends' ravings about movie were tuned a little too high. Still, there were a lot of moments to be savored: the Knights Who Say, 'Ni', the vorpal bunny, bravely brave Sir Robin, and Tim the Enchanter, among others.

Quick Grammar Shot

While shopping in Ever yesterday, I passed by a closed up shop with the following sign posted on the wall (verbatim):

"The Tweedledee Shop has move at the upper ground floor besides the 99 Shop."

Oh joy.

'Madagascar'

Maybe it was the fact that "Episode III" didn't live up to expectations, but I thought that "Madagascar" was a fun movie to watch. The characterization was wonderful, the sight gags were nicely timed, and the story itself was relatively solid. Among the Dreamworks animated features, it's definitely better than "Shark Tale" (but then again, there are many animated features better than "Shark Tale"), and somewhere at the same level of excellence as "Shrek 2."

The lemurs and the penguins stole the show; I found them, especially the penguins, to be funnier than the main characters.

I do agree with one article I read which criticized the use of joke references which would only appeal to adults. This is not limited to "Madagascar"; other movies, especially the 3-D computerized ones, have used this formula. Can't the movie appeal to adults on its own?

Oh well. It was a welcome change from the disappointment of "Episode III." G loved it, so much so when we went into Jollibee yesterday, and she saw the "Madagascar" kiddie meals, she was asking me to get them. And I will, in time; the promo is until June 21. As Mr. Incredible would say, "I still got time."

Looking forward to:

1. "Batman Begins"
2. "Wallace and Gromit: the Curse of the Were-Rabbit"
3. "War of the Worlds"
4. "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
5. "Fantastic Four"