I Carry Lee Min Ho In My Bag

I'm the type of person who hyperventilates at the sight of smooth, beautiful paper. So when I got this organizer for free, I almost died from pure joy.

The pages are perfectly smooth, and each of them are individually designed with birthday cakes and apple trees and elephants in their undies. Your heart will melt from sheer cuteness. Perhaps I may never get to write on this as I will hate myself if I make a mistake and be forced to use the eraser.

Adorned with the handsome face of Lee Min Ho, I'm pretty sure the die-hard worshipers of Boys Over Flowers will have their mouths salivating at the top most picture of this entry. If you love the big, sweet ruffian that is Gu Jun Pyo and are into bubble-gum-girly stuff, then this is the organizer for you. Sadly, you have to purchase Php 2,000 worth of cosmetics from Etude House to avail this collector's item.

But fear not, dear Lee Min Ho fan girls, Etude House sports quality, not to mention very chic, beauty products. I am personally enjoying their Good Bye Dark Circle Eye Cream, and two bottles of very glittery nail polish. However, if you care not for beauty and want only the god-sent bundle of paper above, just purchase three of those eye creams, donate them to me, and you will finally have your very own very stylish and very cute Lee Min Ho organizer.

Thank you in advance! ^_^

(Etude House is a Korean cosmetics company. It is located at the ground floor of SM Megamall Building A, near Toy Kingdom.)

Here Comes the Bride

This is the first Filipino movie I've watched since, perhaps, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros. I'm not exactly a huge fan of Filipino movies, especially the comedy ones, but last night my friends and I watched Here Comes the Bride. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when we neared the movie house, guess who I met.

Yes guys, John Lapuz is just one of the many celebrated actors and comedians who graced the big screen. Together with Eugene Domingo, Tuesday Vargas, Jaime Fabregas, Tom Rodriguez and the very sultry Angelica Panganiban, Here Comes the Bride is sure to tickle your funny bones while pulling your heartstrings at certain points in the film.

The plot is simple. A twisted road accident causes five very different people to switch bodies before a big wedding. While some of them were first at a loss, some find themselves instantly comfortable with their new selves, and quite possibly, their new lives as well. As the story progressed, the characters attempt to a find a way to return to their old bodies and in the process, look at life from a freshly new perspective.

Not short on big laughs and crack ups, the movie does not fail to entertain. I personally cannot get over the funny bed scenes and the many many kisses between Harold (Tom Rodriguez of Pinoy Big Brother Double Up) and whoever it was that contained his wife's soul. Good thing they weren't torrid or I would have reached my limit and puked!

While the movie can be hilarious, it can also be horrifyingly poignant. Everyone is fueled by desire, after all. What this movie showcases is that whatever it is you want, whether it be to get married or to be young again, to be filthy rich or to change your gender and become a woman, you can have it. Sometimes with a stroke of luck (or a lunar eclipse on a magnetic road); sometimes, only temporarily and sometimes, as it is in real life, at the expense of others.

Cat Soup

I was intrigued by the anime Cat Soup. The little cats looked like cousins of Hello Kitty that I thought the movie would only be about cute, stupid kittens out on their nightly meowing rampage. Turns out I was dead wrong.

Cat Soup (image source: dvdnear.com/images)

Cat Soup is an abstract short film that serves both as a mind twister and a visual feast, in a weird cartoon kind of way. It is a simple story about a cat who embarks on a quest to recover his sister's soul which ripped apart when he was fighting Death in an attempt to save her. With no need for words, the film takes you along our feline hero's bloody journey.

The unifying theme in the movie -- if there was any theme at all -- is life and death. To be specific, the shortness of life, the abruptness of death and the struggle to survive in between. Filled with maniacally inventive concepts and allusions to popular religious and cultural ideas like Noah's Ark and Hansel and Gretel, the movie is unforgiving and beautiful and cruel all at once. True to its description, Cat Soup is indeed more of a work of art than an anime. And I sure enjoyed watching it.

You might want to see it yourself.

Torn Between The Boxer and The Jealous Guy

So I have a crush on Lee Dewyze. He's not really what I would call my type but with his raspy voice and genuine attempts at gaining self-confidence, I can't help but fall for him. Lee is very very cute. I've been watching his past performances and I notice that every time the judges praise him, he would smile just a little and then look at the floor as if he's shy. I find that part of him totally cute. He seems like the kind of guy you would want to hug and take care of.

Lee Dewyze (image source: chicagotribune.com)

Casey James, on the other hand, is a total hunk. He has this what I call a Brad Pitt factor, because somehow, I think he embodies the perfect American prince charming. Tall, long unkempt hair, lazy smile. I have a pretty good idea why Kara asked Casey to strip off his shirt and flaunt his abs the first time they met at the auditions. And it is not at all wholesome! Hahahaha

Anyway, I obviously like Lee and Casey for different reasons. But what is similar to them both is that they sing beautiful songs with ease. I first noticed Lee when he sang Fireflies and although I have seen Casey's hotness since the beginning of the show, I only truly noticed his vocal potential during his rendition of John Lennon's Jealous Guy.

The two boys have received great reviews from the judges tonight and I hope they end up battling with each other at the end. The only person in the way is Crystal Bowersox, but I'm not gonna go and badmouth her here. The girl can sing and I like some of her performances as well.

Though I know I'm only day dreaming, I do hope Lee or Casey (or both) come to the Philippines after American Idol. I would definitely be one of their giddy fan girls holding up signs that say "Lee I Love You!" while screaming exactly the same thing. Since that's not happening any time soon, let this blog be my sign and scream at the same time. Lee, I love you!

The Rise (and Fall) of the Jejemons

There has been a lot of stir lately regarding the rise of a seemingly new species of linguistically challenged netizens -- the Jejemons. This breed has gained popularity in search engines that Yahoo Philippines even featured it on its news stream. So what are jejemons? Urban Dictionary describes them as follows:

"(Jejemons are) usually seen around social networking sites such as Friendster and Multiply, jejemons are individuals with low IQs who spread around their idiocy on the web by tYpFing LyK diZS jejejeje, making all people viewing their profile raise their eyebrows out of annoyance. Normal people like you and me must take a Bachelor of Arts in Jejetyping in order to understand said individuals, as deciphering their text would cause a lot of frustration and hair pulling."

Wrecking spelling and grammatical havoc online, you would wonder, where, why and how on earth did the Jejemon movement begin? The description offered by Urban Dictionary above provides little answer, but if you have a Friendster account dating back since 2003, you would notice that the Jejemons aren't new.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Jejemons are a product of a generation born in the height of mobile phones and text messages. Rather than shortening the spelling of long words and using abbreviations, Jejemons have taken redacting to exaggerated levels.

Perhaps it is only now that we have paid closer attention to Jejemons because of the rapid circulation of the photo below.

Presidential candidate Sec. Gilbert Teodoro holding out a sign which translates to "I will send the Jejemons back to elementary school."

I have only copied this picture from a friend's Facebook wall which was posted yesterday and already, it has generated 40 or so comments of hilarity, hatred and dismay for our failure to wield the English language.

Honestly, I first thought that the Jejemons are just funny like some satirical fad out to tickle your brain cells. But after a while, people have been jumping in the Jejemon bandwagon and started posting more and more Jejemon literature on the web. It just became really annoying and I want it to stop.

Come to think of it, I really don't understand why anyone in the world would want to type like that and showcase just how inept he is of English syntax. As Filipinos, we have long prided ourselves with having excellent English instruction (I will leave the discussion on colonization to another day) and it's embarrassing that such idiocy would originate from us.

Unless you remove the annoying Jejemon from your friend list, you really cannot control what goes up your Facebook news feed. And even if you have succeeded in the heartless process of blocking the person, one or two Jejemons will still somehow irritate your eyes by leaving a harmless comment on one of your friend's status messages.

The fact is, a Jejemon could be anyone. He could be your friendly school mate back in high school. He could be your neighbor, your cousin, your crush. Heck, he could be you for all I care. While it is true that democracy allows us to express ourselves in the web in whatever way we want, regardless of how foolishly spelled out our thoughts are, I personally don't want the Jejemons to proliferate their literature and cause eye sores everywhere.

So whether they stick around or die off, I only have one request. Jejemons, please spare me my sanity.

Of Theme Songs and Practiced Catwalks

Thinking I could cash in a few hundred bucks while killing time, I decided to apply for a writing position online. The job doesn’t require knowledge on a whole range of topics other than economics, business and more specifically the Currency market which is a plus considering my professional background. I thought I’d be asked to write an essay on the JPY/USD trend and how Greece is affecting the world’s foreign exchange rates, but I was stupefied by the question If you entered a room and a theme song played, what would your song be and why?

The cursor on my laptop screen blinked twice and I blinked with it, wondering if this was a real question or a mere joke. I thought Well, what the heck, it’s an interesting question anyway. So I typed Beautiful Ones by Suede.

Call me vain or narcissistic, call me whatever you want, but I have always fantasized walking in slow-motion with an air of nonchalance like Victoria and the other villain vampires in the teeny-bopper movie Twilight. In my head, Brett Anderson’s distinct raspy voice would re-echo the line Here they come, the beautiful ones, the beautiful ones. La la la la as if announcing the arrival of some demigod.

source: http://www.fanpop.com/

I would then sashay into the room feigning a natural casualness as possible and thinking of an imaginary wind that would slightly waft through my hair making it look flowy but without the frizz. Of course, I will smile at no one as vampires had always had that snobbish air around them, but deep inside, I will be wearing a wide idiotic grin for having accomplished such a meticulously planned feat.

I will then relish every step I will take as I walk into the room. This moment would be perfect and I would finally live the daydream of being Victoria. Disinterested. Elegant. Beautiful. Hahahaha.