A Migraine Boy Grows Up Into A Migraine Man: Jul 13, 2005

Sunday, July 10. 2005. I'm afraid the weather has gotten through to me. I guess I underestimated the common cold. I think I got the not-so-common strain accompanied by dry cough, a runny nose, and the occassional migraine. Quite enough to keep me from work. And the usual prescription for this is increased fluid intake and bed rest. It would've been fine if I had been able to stock up on DVDs to keep me company through the duration of my absence. But I've pretty much viewed most of what I have at home at least twice or thrice already. I thought of watching the Lord of the Rings Trilogy all over again but then that would pretty much defeat the purpose of "bed rest." That would be around nine to ten hours of travelling around Middle Earth on foot, battling all sorts of Orcs and Goblins and journeying into Mordor to cast the "One Ring" into the fires of Mount Doom. Kapagod.

Anyway, being sick with the cold did not stop me from going wherever I wanted to and enjoy myself. Here's a recap of the week that was.

On Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie in Mr. & Mrs. Smith

Movie time! There's really not much I can say about this film. Except maybe that I wouldn't have felt as bad spending one hundred pesos on this one than when I saw Dreamworks' animated film, Madagascar. It's like Barbie and Ken playing James Bond and Mata Hari roles. I dare not blink for I did not want to miss a single shot of the very beautiful Angelina Jolie. She gets beat up, shot at with machine guns, banged on a wall, kicked in the gut and pretty much everything else but she still manages to look good (which, I think is the point). In which case is pretty much the same for Brad Pitt but then, he's really not my type. Its very much a "chick" and "guy" flick since Ms. Jolie is there basically to keep the men riveted as Mr. Pitt pacifies the women. It was a very entertaining film, to say the least.

Market! Market! On A Rainy Day

The taxi ride

Saturday morning. I was supposed to be home resting my head but I just couldn't stand staying home all day and do practically nothing. Jo also had nothing to do that day and she wanted to go to Market! Market! at the Fort Bonifacio Global CIty. I agreed to go so we braved

Inside Market! Market!

the rains and headed there. It was my first time to go there and all I can say is that it's a really BIG place. Very much like the Festival Supermall in Alabang but much bigger (although I'm really not a very good judge of scale). There are a lot of bargains there. The

The fresh produce section

fresh produce section looked like a neat place to go around in and look for stuff but I wasn't able to do that so I guess I'll reserve that for next time. There are also quite a number eating place to choose from so you'll never go hungry (unless if you're flat broke). The ladies will probably go nuts from all the bargain

Inside Market! Market!

clothes, shoes and what-have-yous in that part of the mall. Jo pointed out this one store which sells mostly tsinelas (KV and Jo call them chinelasis which sounds very much like a communicative disease), the kind that's sold in most malls at four hundred pesos a pair. This store apparently sells them at sixty pesos

The Banana Peel tsinelas store

a pair!

Though I cannot say that Market! Market! has everything I want and am looking for because it doesn't (I'm having thoughts of Metrowalk and DVDs... Mmmm...). But I did see stuff that I do want in the technology alley, one of which is an

Clothes, clothes, clothes!

illuminated keyboard for a little over a thousand pesos. Medyo luho nga lang but I think it would look really good on my computer table. Haaay...

On War of the Worlds

Dakota Fanning and Tom Cruise in Steven Speilberg's War of the Worlds

I agree with what Uleb said, this one's a Steven Speilberg film and not a Tom Cruise flick. Most people I know reacted a bit violently about the ending, they're saying that the resolution wasn't set up properly and that it was too abrupt. Also the fact that the story revolved around the character that Tom Cruise was playing. For the most part of the film he was just in hiding so that kind of cuts the audience off from all the action that's happening outside. But then that device is probably intended to build up the suspense. The viewer is left to their own imagination (along with visual and auditory cues) as to whatever might be happening on the outside.

Watched this one in Market! Market! cinemas. After gulping down a large iced tea, I had to go in the middle of the move. The restrooms were outside the cinema so I had to get myself stamped so I could get back in. Bad trip.

Now The War of the Worlds was written by H.G. Wells in 1898. Knowing what we know now, it would not have been as terrifying if Speilberg made his film in the context of the book. Around the time the Wells' book was written, there was much fascination about astronomy. The moon was studied extensively and has been mapped out, and it had been proven that there is no "man on the moon." (At least not until we do send men up there, which would be around 71 years later). So people turned their telescopes to Earth's closest neighbor which was Mars. Mars is nearly as big as the Earth but with half its gravity, with hardly any atmosphere (but people in 1898 didn't know that yet). Now we know that there are no Martians and that they won't be coming to invade our planet. In the film, there wasn't any mention of where the aliens came from (at least none that I remember, I'd have to see it again to make sure). Overall, I liked Spielberg's re-interpretation of the story, even with his signature "happy ending."

Blast 4! University Online Consortium EB

Remember that event I posted about a week ago? It turned out to be bigger than I expected. I initially thought that this was a peyups.com event only, not until later when I found out what the title of the event was. Apparently, four University online communities participated in the event namely http://www.peyups.com/, http://www.atenista.net/, http://greenarcher.yehey.com/ and http://ustexchange.yehey.com/ in cooperation with http://www.pinoyexchange.com/. Eight bands performed that night (we arrived a bit late so we just caught the last five). There was a fashion show of cool clothing, wearable MP3 players and hip jewelry. Lots of prizes were given away. There's also a sneak peek of the UAAP Live 2005 PC game. All I got though was a plastic cup full of beer mixed with Lipovitan which left me halfway between tipsy and sober. More photos here.