wastefulspace

Yes, I am back. Somewhat, after countless of non-photography post, it is now time to return, here is a current piece, a mix of image and digital art with a short excerpt from me.

Enjoy.

I could never really post anything worthy to explore. As I have only been to certain parts of Asia, where shopping malls and beaches were a normal thing. No indepth culture, nothing special to point at, which is why I have a goal in photography now: To make the ordinary things extraordinary. I cannot create bokeh’s on a normal distance, nor do I have a dozen of groups or fans trailing on my every photo with a 100 comment / photo range, nor do I have70-200mm f2.8 lens. This is the only way I take photographs for now: me, some elements, and a story.

After seeing the trailer, and after m9dhatter went absolutely gaga over the movie poster,  we have decided with gusto that we shall watch this over at the New Iluma theatre in Bugis.

With sweet popcorn and orange soda, I sat at the small theatre and waited for my mind to explode.

Instead, my head just went retarded.

Grave, and utter disappointment. I spent the first 30 minutes glued to my seat, the last hour was fidgeting and sighing and rolling around and rolling my eyes. At the point of supposed excitement and when the movie screen went blank, no violent reactions, no put the movie back on, some people were actually shouting refund.

I felt the same way.

Blood : The Last Vampire was supposed to be the competitor for the Underworld series. It didn’t even come close. To my utter dismay, I would place it with Twilight as one of the very bad vampire movie spin offs of all time.

Vampire hunter Saya was all decked in a school uniform armed with a katana. Aside from that. You can only see still frames of the action. Fluid movement of grace and abilities of such assassins should be captured in endless amounts of film reel. It was hard and rough edges and basically no good input on how she was able to kill them. Just lots of CGI blood and CGI heads flying and CGI limbs tearing.

Where were her amazing combat skills? Was it merely shown to throw random objects and see more human body parts slicing and flying?

And Alice. Ugh, don’t even get me started on Alice. She’s is one very normal mortal who seems to be effin immortal. Just kill her for christ sakes.

Only Kato’s fight scene was proven to be notably worthy. While Saya plays the stop-dance and kill the enemies All I had instead of breathtaking orgasmic sheer wonder was annoyance maybe loss of a few more braincells.

Jun Ji-hyun should’ve stuck to romantic comedies then try to be a school-girl clad vampire warrior. Meh.

Gone were the days when PC reigned supreme. Ever since the rebirth of Apple, showcasing numerous items that escalated their popularity ranging from the Ipod, the elusive Iphone(which I don’t really like at all), which PC makes a competition Zune that went up in flames. And of course their lovable macbooks/imac. It’s everywhere.  From students in the coffee stores showing off their silicone-pink cases up to professionals acting cool.  It seems that I do not have much good to say with Mac users. Even the advertisment is a bit “pompous”  a term used by my friend over at his blog .

This was mainly because after the continuous war of Mac over PC (who has centered the fights w/ Windows (I don’t see them claiming anything against Linux)) that Windows actually tried to outdo or hit a nerve with this.

I am not really a big fan of the ad. It has too many discrepancies. Lauren drives a new VW. She can spend $1k but ended up with something that is around $699 with a 17″ screen.

I am an IT person. I do not claim to be a HW guru but had my fair share of notebook problems, I have used a Dell D610, an IBM z60m, a Compaq Presario B1921TU and a Lenovo T61. These are all mid-range laptops with the same price as her 17″ HP (during that era). I am dubious with the price range that offers too much.

So far, I really like the IBM/Lenovo line best. They are practical, no-nonsense laptops with a good keyboard orientation. They have thinklight(tm), which I sorely missed when I switch to Compaq and gone were the latenight typing w/out a problem at looking at the keyboard. Now I squint. And it has a very sturdy feel to it that I could bump it around w/out feeling a bit worried. The only sickness of this line is come 3 years suddenly it conks out and here comes the eruption of many little problems that makes it almost useless and a pain to bear (*remembers the IBM T30s, I will miss them).

But then I look at the Macbook, the style is sleek, the chicklet, very easy to press, but missing-the-key-features keyboard (all hail command key), the glossy screen, the required high resolution on 15″ and up, the magnetic cord that goes *pop when someone accidentally trips and sends the adapter cord flying, the Office for Mac (the irony :D), fast boot-up time, support for editing photos/web design/ and coding (big +++ for me) and of course, the ridiculously safe and secure protocol that took 3 days to hack while disabling some security features. I applaud you Mac.

So what is stopping me from going to Apple, waving “I <3 apple” signs and all that? Lauren has a point when she mentioned that the price range was b1@tch expensive. But I don’t mind paying extra if I am safe and secure.  3K-4k SGD is not bad especially since I want a macbook pro. (insert fangirl squee here). 17″ is my dream. but will settle for 15″ depends how bad i want it :P

All I can say is Lauren, I totally understand you, but I hope you don’t mind paying extra for Warranty, MS Office, Support for multiple-HW/SW crashes, and a really good anti-virus! :)

 

From countless of people claiming how this could’ve even been liveaction, or made. My friends and I took the time today to see this on the big screen. We prepared for major suckage so we also bought tickets for Street Fighter:  The Legend of Chun-Li as back-up. 

But before I do a review on SF, I was able to finish this 90 minute movie after rolling my eyes, snorting, and giggling during the entire time and laughing uncontrollable at the clip after some credit line (see for yourself after).

Overall, it was a complete and definite wreckage/spin-off/adapatation/whatever-you-call-it of the anime/manga that Me including people of around my age range have thought of Dragonball[DB] to be. Children will have a completely different view of DB. I didn’t like it. I have nothing against white people, but I wished Goku wasn’t an American dude, or I really wished they didn’t even pushed through this movie at all. Some things weren’t really meant for live action. It should’ve been preserved as it was before, or just made it in CGI. Thundercats would probably have more chances of doing a live action,  the same as the hype for transformers.

I am deeply disappointed by James Wong. For someone who is Asian whom I wished knew the series/manga well, could’ve done a better job.

And the worse part? There could be a part 2 *gasp*, hopefully they would make things better, but if they continue on w/ the story as left in Evolution. Then, they’re in big trouble :|.

After a long break because I couldn’t figure out why my database connection won’t work, I have sucessfully figured out why it’s giving up. My hosting service changed their DB server address so I had to do some modifications on my ws-config page.

Anyway! This was one of my guilt-free evenings where I could do whatever I want since

A) I was able to finish my task.
B) I was on a half day so I get off work at 6
C) and I was craving for good food.

There was something that peaked my curiousity since the day it opened. For the longest time, it just said, “An Italian Restaurant Will Be Opening Soon” and when it opened. I was intrigued how their Italian cuisine would fair.

Although Amicis De Don Bosco never disappoint for food quality at a very reasonable price (love, love, LOVE the gelato). It is not a place where you can drag a potential girlfriend to a first date, especially when she is picky about the ambiance that resembles a school cafeteria. Get my point?

I have been to the usual places that boasts “real” Italian food like *eherm* Italianni’s, which I think is too commercialized and too american to my taste, plus at that price range, I would just eat at Kulinarya or Burgoo. And get more value for my money. Bravo was just too damn expensive, with its itty bitty portions and champagne drinks that costs a meal at Burgoo/glass, we never went there again.

One of the more classier Italian places I’ve been to was suggested by my tard one night when I had no company and he said to take me to this little area near Banilad where the chef is real Italian and the prices weren’t as overboard as Bravo, but you get the real, fine, Italian food that wasn’t too heavy on the stomach. This is Giuseppes.

But if I were to fly my weekends to Cebu just to eat at Giuseppes, I can forget about it for now.

While I contemplate on my current foodtrip, I tossed my lunch bag in the car and crossed the little street to La Dolce Vita along the little street of Polaris Makati. An Italian phrase for “The Sweet Life”. The waiter/reception person was kind enough to seat me alfresco with the cool wind gushing and me in my double breasted coat and long-sleeved shirt sat and enjoyed the weather and the nice little tables and chairs. I wasn’t able to see interior, but it looks like a crazy mix of european cultures but what caught my eye is a big read piano. Which I read is for happy hour nights

I scanned the menu in search for something to eat (knowing I want ravioli). And my heart skipped a couple of beats to see the really expensive price range. Meals are round 300+ to 700+ . I only had 600 in cash to spare.

It took me a long time to pick, but I saw the nice dish and made up my mind.

Sir, 1 Ravioli Alla Fellini and 1 Black Coffee.

And then, I sat and waited for the verdict. Will I be impressed or just so so, or will I be deeply disappointed? 

In a couple of minutes after ordering, The waiter laid on me a loaf of soft bread with two little pate plates. Looking at it makes me think of butter and some unidentifiable spread.

I drizzled balsalmic vinegar and spicy olive oil on my bread plate, sliced off a piece placed the ‘?’ spread and ate it, after some chewings I have figured it was pesto.

I spreaded a pat of the “butter” and took a bite. I tasted the hint of garlic and tried spreading pesto, butter, and dipped it in the balsalmic and olive oil mix, it had a really pleasant taste. 

My coffee arrived a few minutes and it was on a big steaming cup with a hard cookie on the side. I give them props for supplying Splenda and Equal together with the mandatory white and brown sugar, and cream. Without putting anything yet, I sampled the dark coffee and was instantly pleased of the no sour aftertaste, and almost chocolatey flavor and was brewed right.

I placed two creams and a Splenda and it was almost like Alexa’s Deli’s Cafe Americano the coffee was transformed into a new flavored drink with just a hint of sugar and cream. From chocolate hint to almost Mocha. 

The cookie was tough to munch, and I personally like chewy cookies.  It was nothing special, tastes like oatmeal and is just your regular tough cookie, haha. Was it posing for biscotti? I don’t really know, but it did make a nice dessert.

When I had half of the bread, my main course arrived.  After it was settled in my place, I took a good look in the dark light, a vegetable carved rose garnish on the side the grilled prawn was artfully placed in a bed of big ravioli pieces and the cream sauce looked really rich and buttery, because it smells like it.

I took a spoonful of cheese and sprinkled it all over my plate and to my utter surprise, the cheese melted quickly and dissolved into the sauce leaving only a few traces. And just because it was delightful, I did it 3 times.  Meaning it must not be parmesan. I was being proven wrong at an alarming rate.

I was curious of the little pieces of meat scattered around and I was assuming like all seafood pasta they throw in a couple of fish pieces even if the menu said shrimp, but once again my hypothesis was thwarted.  It was little shrimp pieces generously lavished around my plate. Better and better.

The little shrimps were tasty and marinated well. The ravioli pasta was handmade because you can see some uneven sizes and the cuts. Each ravioli was stuffed generously with spinach and It blended well with everything since it has almost a bland taste. The grilled prawn was cooked into the way I like, tender, and falls of the shell easily. I don’t like shrimp meat sticking on the shell it makes me very annoyed.  And yes, I was trying not to scarf it down like a construction worker :D.

Bite after bite after bite and I found my plate empty, and eating left my coffee cold, which they heated for me without problems when I asked. I finished the coffee and the cookie and asked for the bill.

The menu price  as I recalled was 385 for the pasta, and 42.50 for coffee, plus all the taxes and service charge is a 465.67. I remembered paying for more at Bravo, the Ravioli was 400 something and the champagne was 300 something.Yikes.

 I walked out feeling  in between full and craving for more. It was a really great place. And the food was great in my book, they deserve more praise. I was searching for this restaurant and I got was an intro from Our Awesome Planet and An article by The Manila Standard who gave a little bit of history to the restaurant. This is a pricey restaurant. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. But if you splurge on Italianni’s for their so called authentic food then this won’t be a problem. This is also a bar and the drinks range from 165 up + tax. But it seems more than enough alcoholic mixes is in their drink book. And I hope it gives a good impression to the readers as well as it did to me.

Here’s to La Dolce Vita! :)

 

The  things that you don’t normally do to a normal picture.

 

this is one of the first photography posts in a while. and i want to dive into the subject of post-processing (pp for short). the usual pp is the adjustment of brightness, contrast, exposure and levels. this makes a picture sharper or warmer to taste. 

I recently went to my old office’s christmas party over at c3 events place in greenhills. everybody was in their party-hardy hippie/hoppie clothing. and i took a few pictures. just regular pictures, nothing fantastic about them. the usual snapshots.

when i was creating a set for them, i proceeded to do the usual post-process methods, but since i got bored, i overdid it. when i say overdid it, i really meant it.

the main picture was my inspiration. i was feeling the acid waves of the 80s wash over me and i turned the hue onto blue, and heighten the contrast. it added the rebellious, edgy look, and the irony of the two different subjects.

 

so i had fun and took it in the opposite. 80s princess pink and the punk rock princess. it now shifts over to favor my friend harmony’s costume and makes me look out of place in all the pink tones.

 

this was my 70s take on things. the color is too warm and yellow (saturated)  for usual pictures but it looked good with the black and white outfits of my two officemates.

 

this is my favorite photo from the set, not because it had one of my favorite people in it, but i like the hard lines and edges, the nothingness behind, and the drama of black and white. 

and that’s my take on the crazy, post-processed world that is never much ventured on professional photography in this level of extremity unless you can get away with it, or you’re just bored like me.

*all photos are edited in Adobe Lightroom 1.3

Here is the sleek classy look of the new wordpress 2.7 dashboard.

I honestly like it. it makes everything very simple and workable. when wordpress upgraded from version 2 to the subtlely new 2.5 dashboard, I was finding all the links in the wrong topics. But with this new interface, it might be embarassing to make such a bad guess.

It’s very pleasing to the eye even. The  options aren’t cluttered like before, and everything flows smoothly to the botton.

The main dashboard page shows all the data you’d like to see when you visit the site. Your post count, stats, total comments, pending comments, and the other old stuff, plus a new nifty quick post box where you can post a quickie (sorry for the bad pun) if you just feel like it.

So far, I”m loving it. But as my future, pending review of the Nokia E71, there might be the little quirks again that I disapprove.

 

Some angel introduced me to this band during my university days and I finally bought the album when I had my own money.  Dad wouldn’t be too happy to buy me something that has a band name too violent. So here is Hot Fuss from one my favorite bands, The Killers.

This album came out 2004 produced by an independent label Lizard King. It sold multiple platinum and had big success in the UK and US.  The Killers actually played in an episode of The O.C. featuring hits like Mr. Brightside and Smile Like You Mean It.

At a first glace (or listen), I actually had the notion that The Killers was a Brit Group, the accent and the music reminds me so much of 80s Brit punk to be exact.  This group actually hailed from Nevada, USA, which had me fooled. So when I head Lizard King was actually London-based, 

Hot Fuss isn’t my favorite album, it took a while to get accustomed to the non-mainstream-friendly music. Examples were Andy, You’re a Star, Everything Will Be Alright and Believe Me Natalie, I remember skipping those tracks because they seem too slow and odd at first. So I mostly listened to the mainstream ones (Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, Smile Like You Mean it), and my absolute favorite, Midnight Show, the intro transport you elsewhere everything is racy, and the song was desirable in my book. It makes me push the gas pedals harder and scream into the night. While the end was very resigned, full of melancholy and woe. Almost like regret.

I bought the album 2005 and in 2007, when I popped in again in the CD player, thinking if there were any change in my song preferences, it was still the same, but the used to be skipped tracks were now listenable, and in fact, it was very soothing, relaxed, and laid-back as rock can be. You can definitely space out to the songs with alcohol, caffeine, or smokes or a combination of all.

All I can say is The Killers definitely started the whole punk revolution for me.  Next time I’ll take you to Sam’s Town. Be sure to smile like you mean it!

 

On the first weekend of this most awaited film from hordes of guilty 20-somethings (me), to the guiltless teenyboppers was huge massive proportions of disappointment on my part. I could list a hundred reasons why it is bad and a couple good.

But before you start snarling at me with your make believe fangs and have plans to burn me alive, this is a matter of opinion, I have a couple of star-struck female friends who were absolutely drooling how beautiful and hot Robert Pattinson is and the ideal man, minus the blood sucking qualities. Or maybe, they like that sort of fetish…

Twilight was directed by Catherine Hardwicke who was known to have directed the controversial and edgy film called Thirteen (I shall need to watch this), I was reading about this in E! if I’m not mistaken before the movie came out and I was relieved that she would be directing this book, which if we leave out everything, would just become a love story as tragic as the Titanic. I was hoping for more dark and dreary scenes together with the matching witty dialogue. Stephanie Meyer was actually in the set, helping with the creation, how she agreed to this, I don’t really know.

As my sister points out, it was supposed to be an adaptation. The Romance/Action/Thriller/Suspense description was now downright cheesy. The only actual lines that were used were the romantic and syrupy sweet, like Bella and Edward are cheese-heads who were madly in love and nothing more. The first book was very short, but it seems the whole budget was focused on the close-ups of Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Everything else was an extra, not only was the baseball scene shortened, James didn’t even put up a fight on the last part, which lastly a very measly 3 minutes, from Bella scrabbling around the ballet studio, and James holding a video camera before Edward flies in and saves the day. 

I was glad that I missed the first 30 minutes of the movie. As I accurately predicted what I missed, (I have read the book of course), my boyfriend was gagging although out the film and to my surprise, I was also. Edward Cullen sounds more like My Chemical Romance than a Vampire. Where is the manly (vampire-y) bravado? He seems to be so out of it, it just sounds like a regular whiny person with issues who was too pale, with the Final Fantasy signature protagonist cool hair in high school. 

For the 1.5 hours in the film, Bella did not once trip on her own clumsy account. 

I came out of the movie ranting how awful it was. While male species around me were commenting how stupid the film is.

To be at the bottom of the bell curve gives more interesting insights to this movie. I maybe one of the huge fans of this series that I was swooning and putting up the cheesiest lines on my Yahoo Messenger status everyday to him teasing my that I’m absorbing too much twilight, the movie did no help in heightening the Twilight fangurl in me.

I will not recommend that you would watch this film with me, I just might laugh out loud and ruin the moment. But it’s everybody’s choice. This is one way of looking at the movie, aside from the hundreds of gushy blog posts, this is truly, my own very honest, very frank, and very disappointed opinion. 

This is probably one of the most memorable movies I have watched that doesn’t involve cheesy romance, too much violence and gory, happy colors.

Sofia Coppola directed this award winning film in beautiful, colorful Japan with two very misplaced people. In separate worlds, former movie star Bob Harris [Murray] goes to Japan for a 2 Million dollar contract for Suntory (whiskey) taking a break from his boring marriage while the Yale graduate Charlotte [Johansson] comes here with her photographer husband still undecided with what to do with her life. They meet, befriended, and lead to something else.

As my friend f said, she found the movie noisy, yet quiet. I understand what she meant by that. Scenes were mostly visual, the music was very mellow in a sort of dreary way, except for the karaoke scene, which was a fusion of very unfamiliar music that I could only guess is from the 70s/80s.

One familiar song was Alone in Kyoto by Air, which was a perfect accompaniment to Charlotte’s travel to Kyoto and she sees and explores this world. Maybe doing a little soul searching, we wouldn’t know. But she was struck by the traditional wedding of the Japanese, complete with Kimonos for some reason.

I like Charlotte’s role and that I could relate to it in some way, in aspects of relationships and plans for the future and the smoking. And for Mr. Bob Harris, this line set me off in a way that I know this should be my personal mantra.

The more you know who you are and what you want
The less things upset you.

That is one smart, very enlightening, and very helpful dialogue for someone who is trying to find their selves (like me).

To have set it in Japan was pure genius. The language barrier was totally tough to deal as I have studied the Japanese language, grammar is opposite of English grammar. To say, I am eating fish. Would be 私は魚を食べて(I am fish eating). Plus it is a rarity for Americans to know Japanese, Spanish or French might be possible but would be less effective to grasp the whole lost in translation phase. 

The constant switch or L’s and Rs are known as there is no R or L in the Japanese pronunciation but  a mixture of both RA is known as lra with an “L” sound but with an R. Roger Moore could become lroger moorle, The commercial scene was a very obvious language barrier situation. The director explained everything from Bob Harris’ sitting down, the placement of whisky and how he looks and treats the whisky until he toasts about the Suntory time.  All the translator did was “He want you to turn, looking camera. OK?” which made a very confused Bob Harris ask “Is that all he wanted?”

It was funny how Murray’s character responded to the special visit from a certain lady which inspired this review’s title. Domination roles for females are highly present in Japanese culture. If you do not believe me, I suggest you try watching most of their *eherm* naughty stuff for evidence. The act of shyness, then very submissive and then totally disagreeing, almost like rape, was highly evident, and was hilarious to watch in this scene, as Bob Harris tried to entangle himself from this woman who says “No! Stop Mr. Harris! Puris Ret Me Go! (Please let me go!)” but continues to tangle him anyway. They ended up crashing to the floor and hitting one of the lamps which short circuited the whole room’s lights. Amusing, and not in the usual slapstick way.

One qualm I had, or this intrigue was why did Scarlett Johansson’s character keeps being shown prancing around in panties? The opening scene was that and it keeps showing her ass in various times of the movie. Fetish or Foul? I don’t really know, but I wasn’t entertained.

Overall, I would like to recommend this film to anyone who has the intellectual capacity to try and understand and give it a chance. It is filled with dialogue and very little action if you count the chase scene with the angry barmen and the dancing naked ladies. It is as dreary and as full of words like Before Sunset, even how it was film was done was like it was set in the 90s, very dim, very pale colors and almost to the point of dragging, but this was a 2003 movie.

I liked it for the strong roles, the equally great actors who portrayed it, an original story of something different for a change and just about everything.