The Four-eyed Journal

I confess that I can’t wait for the The Dark Knight to be released on DVD because I am definitely going to an original copy for myself.

The late Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker was just perfect and awesome. If ever the the Joker would return in the Batman 3, who ever takes over Ledger’s role will definitely have big shoes to fill in.

Speaking of Batman 3, anticipation has already started to brew about this next installment in the Batman series. As with any anticipation for another sequel to a kick-ass film, rumors and speculations have already circulated and generated buzz in the internet.

One of the latest rumors to grab the headlines is the possibility of another great actor, Johnny Depp will be cast to play the nefarious super-criminal “The Riddler”. I know some rumors about the Batman films have been proven to be just rumors but I hope this one about Johnny Depp gracing the next Batman film is true. I’m a Johnny Depp fan and his performance on “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is proof that he is up to the job of giving fresh breath of life to “The Riddler”.

I don’t know how many would agree with me, but I’m sure there are lots who would.

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Last night, I went out to watch The Forbidden Kingdom at SM Dasmariñas. I planned to catch the 6:40pm screening but came some ten minutes late. Little worries for me because I expected that the movie house wasn’t that packed and finding a good seat wouldn’t be that hard. Surprisingly, I was wrong, the theater was roughly 70% full - both premiere and de luxe seats, so I had to weave through crowded rows to find a good spot.

It turns out, I wasn’t the only one who wanted to see two of today’s biggest names in martial arts films: Jackie Chan and Jet Li together in a single movie. This is martial arts films history baby!

The Immortals

Yep. Age is not clearly an issue for Jet Li and Jackie Chan as they performed their fight sequences as sharp as The Green Destiny sword, in their individual bouts and engagements. I was even more impressed with Jackie’s performance in which he showed that when it comes to down to performing technical and traditional Kung Fu he is at par with the other martial arts screen legends. Of course, his signature comedic antics and style were still present, perfectly weaved into his technical and masterful moves.

On the other hand, it’s quite refreshing to see Jet Li in a more relaxed and comical nature as he played the roles of The Silent Monk, an unconventional monk who drinks alcohol, and the mischievous Sun Wukong or the Monkey King - the legendary character of great martial arts mastery, strength and powers.

To be honest though, I cannot help but think Jet Li looked more like a chipmunk than a monkey when he appeared as the Monkey King. Perhaps Jackie Chan should have played the character instead.

‘Empty your cup’

This is one the most memorable lines of Jackie Chan in this movie and I’ve just realized that this too must be understood and practiced by any hardcore martial arts film jockey who would want to watch The Forbidden Kingdom.

If you loved the other epic martial arts films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Fearless, Hero among others, forget about them for a while, leave it all at the movie house doors because The Forbidden Kingdom is, to borrow the words of Mark of Winterheim | hdd: “not so epic”

Sadly though, the movie isn’t as epic as I would have hoped it to be. Of course, there’s Jackie’s classic monkey/drunken master antics and Jet Li’s cold but very cool demeanor in their respective characters but the enormity of their mission lacked the epic proportions that were seen in past epic martial arts movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers or Hero. It just felt awkward. I loved the fight scenes. Jackie and Jet are definitely at the head of their game despite their age. But it just felt weird and I couldn’t put a finger to it.

Half-empty, half-full

Perhaps the reason why this movie isn’t that much of an epic is because it is essentially an American film and so the notions of love or country, honor and friendship, ideals or family all of these have been watered down or abruptly executed.

When I saw the trailer a few months back and learned that an American teen actor was in the lead role, all I could say was: “WTF?!”

Again Mark puts it down squarely:

But of course, it also felt weird, and I think a lot of people might agree with me, to see an American as the lead actor in a movie where two martial arts icons have collaborated for the first and possibly the last time. I would have wanted a movie top billed by these two rather than the story revolving around an American lead actor.

The movie wasn’t a disappointment though. To see Jet Li and Jackie Chan sparring, trading kicks, punches and literally at each others’ throats is enough to have me looking forward to adding its DVD version in my collection.

Contrary to Mark, I wish, hope and believe for another “J & J project” that is in the league of the other epic martial arts films before. When that time comes, it will definitely kick ass, move us to tears and leave us in awe.

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Against the instructions of my doctor and my mother, I am sitting on front of my computer and writing this post. I’m doing this because not only that it needs to be done but also because I want it to be done. I want to update this blog.

As the title says, this would post would be a bit random, off-topic and a rant-off in nature. It’s like a fruit salad but was concocted by a drunkard. No I’m not drunk.

I am ill. I’m struck with the summer flu (trankaso actually), good thing the fever has subsided and the headache has disappeared long enough to give me time to check my mail and see if there’s still someone reading this blog. LOL

Work has come a standstill for me while I battle it out with this illness. I expect to be in full health and full blogging + work mode by this weekend. To do a shakedown test of my just recovering body, I’ll be attending my best friend’s band’s first-ever mini-concert. Their group Capo is on a roll as they have appeared as guests in Pinoy Big Brother and Y! Speak just to name a few. The mini-concert will on tomorrow, May 4, 2007 at the Stonehouse Star Tavern, E. Rodriguez Avenue Quezon City. It starts at 8pm and the tickets are available at the entrance.

Here’s one of their performances at Y! Speak

So if anyone’s interested in hearing and seeing them play head on to Stonehouse tomorrow night. I’ll be there with the rest of our gang from highschool days giving our support to Bogs, Capo’s frontman and my best friend. Bloggers can also drop by and we could just hang out, chill to Capo’s music and spread some link love!

Armed with a new blogging tool

Finally I could say this phrase, “I have a phone that blogging bought.” What does that mean? Thanks to blogging and other online engagements I’ve finally earned enough money not only to partially fund my schooling but also a nice tech toy to help me improve my blog and boost my productivity. Thanks to AdSense, TLA, LinkWorth, Enthropia, Ploghost, WordPress, and the Racoma clan, I was able to get a new phone.

After 4 years, I bid farewell to my sturdy and spartan Nokia 3530 and welcome a brand new Sony Ericsson K800i. This 3G-capable phone allows me to take on some of my work wherever I go. The features I used the most since I got this last week is the Organizer with its feature-packed calendar, Tasks list, To-do lists, Notes which I now use to record sudden ideas for blogposts or braingasms.

I’m still learning to master the phone’s menu system, features and other functions. I’ve been a Nokia user all my mobile life and switching to a Sony Ericsson phone feels like switching to Linux from Window$ all over again, but with every step a learning and fun process. Too bad this summer colds and flu has watered down my momentum, once I do get fully recovered though, more and more posts about the prowess of the K800i will grace the pages of this blog.

The strongest point of the K800i that suit my needs is its camera. 3.2 Megapixels may be easily overshadowed by more advanced N-series phones but this 3.2 Megapixel camera phone is a Cyber-shot. As a friend of mine said last week as he described the K800i, “it’s a digi-cam that had a keypad grown on it.” Thanks to this, I shelved my plans of saving up on a digital SLR, and diverted those funds to my more important needs.

Backed by its neat features like an image stabilizer, Best Pic, built-in photo editor and 16x zoom, photo blogging and more, the K800i is perfect for my needs.

Movies, movies, movies…in CDs

Aside from getting new books, securing some basic needs and helping out the family make ends meet, thanks to the income streams that blogging has given me, it has also allowed me to pursue a little hobby of mine. Collecting VCDs, yes VCDs as I don’t have my own DVD player let alone my own TV set. Besides, they’re still a lot cheaper compared to DVDs. If ever the day comes that the VDC format is obsolete, it’s either I’ll just use a conversion technology to turn them into DVDs or keep them as artifacts of the past. Who knows how much an original or non-pirated VCD would cost in auctions in say the next 30 years once the DVD format (Blu-ray or HD-DVD) becomes the standard.

All I need to do now is to wait for this flu to go away and then it’s back to movie marathons, tinkering with the K800i and to this blog’s regular programming. Speaking of going back to things, I’m going back to bed now, my thermometer has just told me I should.

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This is not a tag really, just a list of the top 5 celebrities on my list. The reasons they are among my favorites and a few random things I know about them. Things like this support the proposition that my self and this blog of mine is not solely about science, technology and other geeky stuff. Fret not though, to think that this will be a gossip or celebrities news post, trust me you would find this celebrities Blog a much better read as compared to this blog of mine.

Anyways, and without further delay I give you the following top 10 Celebrities in my personal list and this is in no particular order.

Sean Connery - okay he is old but he’s among my most admired and idolized actors out there. I’m a fan of his films and his scottish accent. It sounds so regal and so authoritative. The first Sean Connery film that I saw was “First Knight”, which co-starred Richard Gere and that beautiful actress. (I forgot her name and I’m too lazy to ask Google for it as of this writing.) The second one, and this is among my all-time favorite films is “The Rock” which he co-starred with Nicholas Cage. The action film is just a brilliant piece of filmaking. Too bad Hollywood no longer makes this kind of action movies. These were followed by some of his James Bond films and now I understood how he rose to international stardom. I’d argue that Sean Connery was the classic James Bond actor. Finally, there’s “The Untouchables” which won him his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He deserves it and more.

Nicholas Cage - since I mentioned him earlier I’m going to move on to him now. Nicholas Cage captured my attention in his off the hook action film “Face Off” (no pun intended) with John Travolta. Damn! (pardon me, but I think you’ll agree with me later on) This movie is definitely among the best action films ever. The gun fights, the acting - Nicholas and John were a perfect match. Nicholas really impressed me when I saw the softer, angelic side of him in “City of Angels” (one of the few films that made me cry). The story, the script, and the ending of the movie just moved me to tears. Plus, it’s soundtrack “Iris” by the Goo goo dolls remains one of my eternal LSS (last song syndrome) songs.

John Travolta - Okay, you already know by now how I moved over to John Travolta. I first saw him in “Look Who’s Talking” a brilliant, comedic and heartwarming film. The most memorable scene for me was when John’s character removed a splinter from Kirstie Alley’s (okay, I Googled this time) finger and they sounded as if they were in the heat of lovemaking. Just brilliant! Of course, John was great in “Face Off”, I really laughed when Nicholas Cage made fun of John’s “ridiculous chin.” Good stuff. Of course who could forget him for “Grease”, “Pulp Fiction and “Saturday Night Fever”?

Natalie Portman - I remember her from “Mars Attack!” She was cute back then, but when I saw her in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace without her silly Queen Amidala make-up, man I was lovestruck. Then came Attack of the Clones, I was cursing and raving mad at that wildcat of some sort for scathing her beautiful skin. I wanted more. lol I got more, of her acting prowess of course, in “V for Vendetta” and “Cold Mountain.” She’s a good actress, a very beautiful woman what more could one ask for, but more.

Anne Hathaway - Natalie Portman was a big crush of mine. Anne, was a bigger one. When I saw her in “Princess Diaries” I almost forgot about Natalie Portman for she reminded me of my former girlfriend (there, I blew it). Her eyes, her smile and her voice, I was swept away. Critics are right, her acting is reminiscent of Julia Robert’s because she is that damn good of an actress. She’s the reason why I tried to search the local bookstores for a copy of the “Devil Wears Prada” that had her picture. Another reason why I went to see “Brokeback Mountain.” Ang Lee is a genius! And I cannot wait to see Anne’s next film.

There you go, 5 of my favorite Hollywood celebrities and I have 5 more, but that is another post for another time.
Do we share the same favorite celebrity? Or do we not. Let me know and if you feel like it, you can think of this as meme for you to continue. Just name 5 of your favorite celebrities and just write stuff about them without consulting Google too much. Then of course tag 5 other bloggers of your choosing.

Lights! Camera…Action!

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We’ve read the classic book by Jules Verne, seen the original film adaptation directed by Henry Levin, and even tried the modern remake the Core.

The Journey to the Center of the Earth is a great story about human adventure, [tag]geology[/tag], the origins of man, exploration and envisioning, and the idea of reaching the center of the earth has captured the dreams and obessions of people, from ordinary faces to life-long scientists of our present times.

Why you ask would people want to reach the center of the earth?

The curiousity to know the unknown, to understand what is really under our feet are reasons enough to take this challenge. However, believe it or not, despite the [tag]books[/tag], [tag]movies[/tag], real scientific research and studies, we humans still have no exact idea of what our planet is like, on the inside.

Sure there’s the common model that the earth is made up of thin rocky crust, the land we’re walking on, floating on top of a liquid mantle which in turn surrounds the rocky core of our planet thousands of miles underneath our feet. But really, these are just theories that have yet to be fully verified and proven.

This geologic model of the earth has been challenged by a nifty program in the National Geographic Channel; called Naked Science: Earth’s Core. It was shown in Philippine cables yesterday afternoon, so watch out for replays.
It may sound like a geekfest but once you get into the program, it’s like watching those [tag]doomsday[/tag], end-of-the-world programs or movies. The difference is, it’s all scientifically possible and will actually happen. The program’s teaser says;

There is a place on Earth where no human could possibly survive. It is a place of incinerating heat and bone-crushing pressure. Thousands of miles below the Earth’s surface, a swirling, molten core of liquid metal generates a powerful magnetic shield, which protects us from deadly solar radiation. Scientists have recently uncovered evidence that this protective armour could be fading. Are weak spots in the Earth’s shield a sign that our planet’s magnetic poles are on the verge of flipping?

Say what?! What do they mean ‘flip’? What’s the earth’s magnetic field?

The answer is found here, but basically as what was stated above, the earth’s molten core of liquid, nickel and iron, swirls around as the earth spins and this creates a giant magnetic field that surrounds our planet. If you’ve used a magnetic compass before, it would show you the existence of this magnetic field by its needle pointing north no matter where you turn to face or even shake the thing.

Now this [tag]magnetic field[/tag] surrounds our planet like an umbrella. It protects us from the nasty and harmful radiation coming from the sun, otherwise, we would be getting far more uglier things than sunburns when we stay out and bask in the sunlight. This would mean the end of summer parties to the beach or the swimming pool.

However, there is a catch. Scientists have found out that the protective magnetic field has never been stable, it’a been changing for thousands of years and continues to do so even now. They call it ‘flipping the earth’s magnetic field’ or in the layman’s terms, “When the north goes south” literally. Once every thousands of years, the earth reverses its magnetic poles, the north goes south, and south goes nort. Again fopr example, using a magnetic compass when the earth flips its magnetic field, you would see your needle pointing to Mindanao as North, while the south end of the needle would point to Ilocos. More information and materials could be found here, complete with an animation, and another resource here. (You need to register for free in order to view the article from NYT)
So what does it all mean? How it will affect us? This is what I meant by ‘like watching those doomsday or end-of-the-world programs or movies.’ Our present generations have never acutally experienced a flipping of the earths’s magnetic field. It happens every thousands of years and when it does, something weird and nearly catastrophic happens.

Aside from ending the summer beach parties, animals who rely on the magnetic field for finding their way around the planet would be cofused or lost or go berserk. Worldwide power blockouts would occur because before a flip, the magnetic field weakens and disappears for a moment and so power grids would be affected by the incoming radiation from space. All of these are just predictions and experts say it may not lead to total catastrophe and chaos but we will be affected by the flip one way or another. It is also comforting to know that a complete flip would take 2,000 years and by that time, we would be prepared for any consequences…hopefully and if calculations are correct.

To make sure those calculations or studies would be correct and accurate, efforts are being made to somehow get a more accurate picture of what the earth’s core is like and how it really works. Extremely difficult and may seem impossible, but scientists are getting some kind of motivation for it, the red planet Mars. They say that Mars once had a magnetic field billions of years ago but has lost that field now and so the result, the plant became barren and lifeless.

If Mars lost its magnetic field, Earth can loose its own too. Knowing exactly when this will happen will make up prepared for the worst to come. To know that, we must understand how the earth’s core really works, and so there are a lot of important reasons why we should, somehow, journey to the center of the earth.

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