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Showing posts from August, 2008

Hot air balloons: Failure to launch

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I was browsing through my photos when I came across those from the 12th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta held last February. After a couple of yearly failed attempts to make it there (the venue has always been Clark Field in Pampanga), I finally got the chance to experience it. But lo and behold, I never got to see a single balloon in flight! The wind was beating hard that day which made it impossible to inflate any balloon. Mind you, they did try repeatedly to launch some balloons but to no avail. I don't know but I just laughed at my experience when normally I would be pissed off and cursing. Here are some of those pictures I took - deformed hot air balloons and all. We'll see if there'll be balloons in flight on the next festival. That's gonna be in about five months time.

David Cook: the kindhearted "smug"

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With all the press on Kara DioGuardi joining American Idol Season 8 as judge ( Yes, never heard of her either; she's reportedly a Grammy-nominated songwriter or something ), I Googled Season 7 winner David Cook to check on what's happening with him lately and stumbled upon a blog by Chris Sligh, a Season 6 hopeful telling a story on how a really nice guy DC is. Fellow AI alum Luke Menard , who's stricken with cancer, recently held a fund-raising concert to help pay for his medical bills. DC sent a signed guitar to be sold at an auction.

What's next for Michael Phelps?

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So the "American Superfish" succeeded in his quest for eight Olympic golds in Beijing. Never mind that his 7th almost slipped away. I really thought he didn't win that one until I saw it flashed on TV that he got it. And I was laughing my heart out during the slow-mo replays. I just thought that his long arms (He acknowledged this in Vogue 's April 2008 issue) saved him.

Will "The Dark Knight" sink "Titanic"?

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Box office estimates for the Aug. 22-24 weekend showed that The Dark Knight had already grossed $489 million in the U.S. alone. For two weeks now it has already overtaken Star Wars as the second highest-grossing movie of all time (in the States, that is). It's still a long shot, though, from Titanic 's $600 million. I wasn't expecting Dark Knight to earn that much, judging from the performance of its predecessor Batman Begins . So, great! But personally, I don't think it could make another $100 million to dislodge Titanic from the top spot. But if it does, well great again! I'll be more than happy 'cause I just love the movie!

China's coming-out party now over

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So the Beijing Olympics are now over. All the hoopla, the controversies - the pollution, China's policy on Tibet, et al. - that lead to 08.08.08 have finally been put to rest. China did an excellent job, I must say. The former "sleeping giant" put all the stops to ensure that its coming-out party is a resounding success. No potholes were in sight, trees were planted, cars were off the streets, eye-popping venues were constructed, and the people were heavily oriented on English, hospitality, and more. It even had to pre-record the fireworks at the opening ceremonies just to make sure there won't be any glitches during the live broadcast. More so, it had to commission a ghost singer to make up for that cute kid's lack of vocal prowess. And I thought only designer goods were being bootlegged in China.

WALL-E: depressing, upsetting, and brilliant

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Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class – I really had to quickly get that during the few seconds in the film when what WALL-E stands for was shown. I find Pixar’s latest offering depressing, though. In fact it’s upsetting. While I was all starry-eyed following cute little WALL-E as he went about his daily routine, a few minutes into the film and I forgot about him and saw what was around.

I am halfwhiteboy.

I am half-white. My dad's Danish and my mom's Filipino. I was born, raised, and still living in the Philippines. And I've never been to Denmark. In fact, I've never seen my father since I was like, seven. But we had one snail mail exchange back in '94. I don't know how he is now but I sure know he's still in Denmark. Yeah, I miss him. And I sure want to see him sometime, get to visit him in Denmark perhaps and learn a little more about that other half of my lineage - you know, the white part of me. But I don't know when that will be. For now at least.