Beowulf: one howler of a movie!

What a movie! What a movie!

When I saw the Beowulf trailer a couple of months ago at our building lobby (courtesy of these new video ads), I was mesmerized. The last time I watched a full-CGI movie was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, and then Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on home video. The first Final Fantasy movie was a breakthrough in that it gave us a glimpse of what could possibly be the future of movies: humans that are not quite human. Think of it. Fans could be idolizing a movie personality, but is not really a live person (although that's happening today... think anime). Also, it can considerably cut down movie production costs, since the characters can work 24 hours a day and not get tired!

Back to the here and now... what is even more intriguing about this movie is that it's being shown in Imax in full 3D! This is an opportunity I don't want to miss. A 2-hour 3D movie!

And so last week we drove off to the Imax theater in the Mall of Asia to catch the 7:00PM movie. The ticket is quite pricey at 400 pesos but hey! It can be worth the experience. And we'll be doing it only once anyways.

So what can I say about the 3D effects and CGI? Amazing. Simply amazing. You have too see it to believe it!

And the storyline? Well. there's a lot of dialogues than I would care for, but eventually I felt that it's a "necessary evil" to develop the plot. The action scenes are exciting, bloody, amazing!

If you want to experience movie watching in a whole new light, go watch Beowulf at the MOA's Imax theater! It's worth the 400 pesos you'll shell out for the movie. After all, you're only going to watch at Imax only once, right? Right? Ummm...

Related site: Beowulf official movie site
Cross-posted at kritikal kritiks

Pedometer mania

It was four or five months ago when I decided to start an exercise routine and in my search for the ideal exercise - something that doesn't require going to the gym because I've faced the fact that I simply have no time for it - I came across this nifty little device called the pedometer, which counts your steps. To benefit from walking as an exercise, you either have to do brisk walking (and set aside time for this), or accumulate 10,000 steps in a day. Walking? I walk all the time! I was set to go.

Or not.

I searched sports shops and drugstores for a pedometer, and it dawned on me that pedometers aren't exactly popular in Manila. I found one though at a sports shop, but it costs around 2,500 pesos! Darn.

Fast-forward to last week. We visited Divisoria and I chanced upon a digital pedometer for a measly 50 pesos! Of course, I am rather dubious about anything electronics sold in Divisoria, but at 50 pesos, why not try it out?

And then last Sunday while watching TV, we saw this Anlene (a milk brand for adults) commercial encouraging the drinking of milk to fight osteoporosis and exercising daily. And as an added boost to this campaign, they were giving away pedometers for free! Come on! That very afternoon, we went to the supermarket and there it was, the 250 peso-box with the free pedometer. I bought the milk for my wife and kept the pedometer for myself.

And then just yesterday, I dropped by the Japanese 88-peso store and discovered that they are selling pedometers at - you guessed it - 88 pesoses! What a deal! Operators are standing by!

I'm still trying out the two pedometers I have and unfortunately I'm getting different readings. Yes, I have two pedometers on my belt, though I'm not exactly fond of the eye-catching white and green Anlene pedometer which stands out against my otherwise dark-themed office attire. The divi pedometer has a black body with a grayish face. Much better.

Also, I must be accidentally resetting the things when I put the seatbelt on (I travel a lot).

And a colleague asked me if I had a beeper on. That was a laugh.

Question: Are pedometers a girl thing? The packaging makes me think so. Hmmm.

Anyways, I make my report soon about my "pedometer challenge". For now, this device is indeed motivating me to walk-walk-walk!

Happy Halloween, Happy Birthday!

October is the busiest time for us in terms of birthdays. There's my younger brother Doods on the 13th (he's working in the middle east right now), then there's me on the 27th, then my father on the 29th, and finally my older brother Dennis on the 30th. After which we celebrate All Saints Day and All Souls Day.

Our dearly departed are quite far from us; they're in Dagupan and in Marinduque, the provinces of my father and mother, respectively. So what we do at this time of the year is to simply light up candles at the strike of 6PM on Nov 1. When we were kids, we would simply light up a candle per room and the corners of the house outside to guide wandering spirits on their way. But we liked the candle lighting ceremony so much that we decided to kindle more candles than necessary. Up in Crystal Cave where my parents live, we'd create a path of light on both sides of the winding pathway leading to the house. Soon our neighbors joined in the fun too.

This year though, we weren't able to go so we simply lit candles in our home at Camp 8 while my mother-in-law sent us rice cakes.

The weekend after Halloween, my wife celebrated her birthday! That was November 4. The day before and the morning of the day itself was a frenzy of activity as we prepared for the afternoon party. It was just a small gathering actually, with a few friends and family members.

My sister helped us prepare this delicious pancit!

Jo-Lo was thrilled to have his cousins visit him and was quite exhausted by the time the party slowed down. Til next year, baby Jo-Lo!