Of Rice Paddies and TOEFL Exams

I accepted a tutoring job again, this time to help somebody prepare for a TOEFL exam. The guy’s name is Tom, and he’s a 25 y.o. Chinese guy. He currently lives with his father, who is an agriculturist. Today’s the first time I visited them at their home. It was raining hard, and it took me several minutes to locate their house. I was drenched and soggy, but their warm welcome brightened me up.

I gave Tom the test I made, and while he answered it, I had a nice, long chat with his father – mostly about his travels abroad, and his job to help farmers increase the yield of their crops – specifically, Rice~ I sympathized with him when we came to the topic of an observed phenomenon: the art of farming is dying – with more and more rural teens preferring to succumb to the lure of the city and leaving their fathers – and their hectares of land behind. I remember reading somewhere that the average age of farmers in Asian countries are somewhere between 40 to 50 y.o., quite alarming, since a lot of things in farming involve manual labor.

I remember my grandfather, and my childhood days of visiting his farm, climbing mango trees, fishing in the pond, straddling his carabao, running along the borders of the rice paddies and generally having a good time with other children who have never heard of TV and whose blissful, rustic lives are mirrored in their eyes. Had I been gifted with stronger arm muscles, I would have gladly traded this city life with life on his farm – to wake up to the fresh air and the singing of birds, and to see the unbroken expanse of star-strewn skies at night.

Tom’s father is a kind man. I can see that he loves his son very much. He’s doing everything he can to ensure that his son may have a shot at success. He: the agriculturist – and his son: the Chemical engineer. It’s inspiring, really.

Here's to Patty

Its quite interesting that I can still sing along to songs I haven’t heard in over 12 years.

When I was 13 y.o. my father went to another city in order to receive training – a part of his job (He used to work in a factory). That was probably the first time that he was away from home for several weeks. Well, when he came back, he got me a tape of Patty Smyth. (Note: In 1999, ipods, DVD players and MP3s were unheard of~ and my generation only had audio cassette tapes), I used to play the tape all day, changing from Side A to Side B, and turning the tape over and over, till the roll gave out~ to which I’d tape back again with a bit of scotch tape.

Years passed, and pop music invaded the air waves. I began to make mix tapes of Alanis Morisette, Hansons, The Moffats, The Goo Goo Dolls etc.

Patty Smyth was left to rust in a drawer, which eventually got discarded along with piles of junk from my childhood.

A couple of days ago, I suddenly had the inspiration to download Patty Smyth’s 1992 album online – and guess what, now that “I Should Be Laughing”, “One Moment to Another” and the famous “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough” is playing on WinAmp, I can still flawlessly sing – along to all of them. Except for “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough”, these songs have never experience airplay in local radio stations in more than a decade, more so on the TV, and yet, I could freakin’ sing-ALONG with them.

Cell memory? Nostalgia? I don’t know… I love the feeling. 

Cover of the Cassette tape,
thanks to Google images for this

A younger Patty Smyth (not "the Patti Smith")

Today’s the birthday of a comic artist I’ve loved when I was a kid: Miss Khandie F.~ 

When I was young, my mother would leave me at the comic stands at the public market, and I’d rent my favorite comics for 25 cents~ “Bata-Batuta” was my favorite, and I adored a lot of artists from there. 

My heroes~

When I was young, all I ever wanted was to work for GASI Publishings with these people~  Sadly, I didn't grow up fast enough, and the company, I think, already closed down.

Photos above were taken from Ms. Khandie's FB, hehe 

I wrote to one of them, Miss Khandie, and she answered me back ~ she was, technically, my first (and only) pen-pal~ and she inspired me to draw. She was really good at it~

Well, almost 14 years had gone by, and we had stopped our communication~ thankfully, Facebook managed to reunite us again, and I even found my other favorite artist, Mr. Jan Michael A.

I still get teary-eyed whenever I think of those good ‘ol years - the 90s: the waning Golden years of Pinoy “komiks”. Although my dreams of becoming a comic artist have been put on hold (the business isn’t doing well nowadays~ and the big publishing houses have ceased operations), I still treasure the memories and the inspiration that my “idols” have given me.

X-Men First Class: Movie Rant

 I just got home after watching the last full show of X-Men: First Class at the Mall. I don’t usually devote more than two paragraphs to rant about films I’ve watched, but this one is probably motivated by the mixed reactions I have heard about the film, courtesy of my friends who told me I’d be wasting money on it, and well, to show off my Marvel geekiness.

Classy, indeed.

First off, the film was made with class. I am very much satisfied by the way the storyline was handled, and the way the historic beginnings of my Uncanny team was made to fit the world we are in now. The locations, costumes and characters were woven seamlessly into the plotline of the movie: I guess, enough to satisfy Comic book purists, X-men (TV) series–followers of the 90s, and even the neophytes whose encounters with the X-Men were only through the recent movie franchises.  Those who complain about the lack of action in the movie must belong to the latter – had you been acquainted with how the X-Men started, you would have appreciated how everything (well, almost everything) had been masterfully brought to the big screen in 2 hours or so. If you came to watch for the fight scenes and all familiar brawls – go rent a DVD of the first three movies, or better yet, go watch Kung Fu Panda 2.

First Class, I think, chose to focus on the characters – their “humanity” and their origins – and this is best accomplished, not merely through the excessive display of their powers, but rather, on their motivations and interactions with others.

Enough with my preaching, and on to the things I like about the movie.

The Cast: James McAvoy (Charles Xavier / Professor X) is convincing, he was bending bullets in Wanted, but now, it’s the other bender: Michael Fassbender (Erik Lensherr) who made each of his own appearance a delight to watch – he’s so classy and Kevin Bacon (Sebastian Shaw) is a perfect and effective villain.

I was delighted with the others too: I kept on clicking my fingers together everytime I see them onscreen Where have I seen this face before? I kept on asking myself, halfway through the movie, I managed to connect them to random pieces of information: Lucal Till (Alex Summers / Havok) – was the guy in Taylor Swift’s “You Belong with Me” video;  Nicholas Hoult (perfectly casted, btw, a pretty boy for the role of the Hank McCoy / Beast) was on Skins – which I have yet to pop into my DVD player; Jennifer Lawrence (Raven Darkholme / Mystique) was on the A-list of Oscar’s Nominees last time – for Winter’s Bone I think; January Jones (Emma Frost / White Queen) is on the cover of a back issue of a GQ magazine I have lying around in my room. (Eep, busted); Rose Byrne (Moira McTaggert) – she was difficult to place, I had Wikipedia to help me remember her, and what a revelation: she was the manipulative girl in Wicker Park, the pilot in Sunshine and the priestess Briseis in Troy. Darwin (the guy who's got adaptive mutation) was also a vampire on Twilight

Would you even call this a BEAST?

The choice mutants: Out of the numerous X-Men considered to make it to the big screen adaptation, I like how they were narrowed down to the select few. (Others might be asking Where’s Rogue? Where’s Cyclops? Jean Grey? Gambit? etc. etc.), but hey, the first generation of the muties who were given more air time have a special symbolism: they are to lead various groups later on: Sean Cassidy (Banshee) is to be the leader of Generation X, Alex Summers (Havok – that’s Cyclop’s brother, folks), is to lead X-Factor, and even Emma Frost (White Queen) will be future leader for the X-Men.

The villains (Angel Salvadore – played onscreen by Lenny Kravitz’ daughter, Zoe, Riptide and Azazel), also played key roles to the duality of X-Men characters~ not everything is black and white – no such thing as real villains, nor real heroes.

And finally, the acting – no exaggeration, no over-the-top screaming (no pun intended, Banshee), and no faking – the drama and the humor were exactly where they should be~ my disbelief was really suspended, I didn’t even have to compare the movie incarnations with the characters I have been familiar with on the comic books, on the 90s TV series and on the trading cards I have collected. The prequel also flows seamlessly with the known movie releases – a cameo of Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Romijn is enough to prove that.

So there, I walked out of the theatre eagerly anticipating the next one – if the producers plan to do it like Star Wars (backtracking), then, I guess, there’ll be two more in store.

End

 But wait, there’s more: useless trivia:

La Vie en Rose by Edith Piaf – that’s the French song that kept playing on the movie – how do I know? I’ve watched Marion Cotillard the other night, and Piaf’s on my playlist.

Anya – that’s Magneto’s daughter who got killed in the comics – causing his rage, it wasn’t the mother, as it was seen on the film. Max (that’s Erik Lensherr’s original name) had a much complicated past than what was seen on the movie, and his first encounter with Charles wasn’t underwater, it was on a psychiatric hospital. How do I know? I followed their love affair, erm, I mean, friendship throughout my childhood years.

Other discrepancies: Moira McTaggert wasn’t CIA – she’s a geneticist, Emma Frost’s adamantine form is a secondary mutation she wasn’t suppose to discover, until some time later, Alex Summers is Cyclops’ younger brother, he’s supposed to appear, much later in the X-Men storyline, Mystique and Xavier didn’t grow up together and she’s not responsible for turning Hank McCoy into a Beast, Riptide doesn’t spin tornadoes, he spins himself and throws shurikens – and definitely not as handsome and dapper as Alex Gonzalez, Ororo Monroe (Storm) should have been portrayed as a young thief, and Wolverine wouldn’t be drinking in a bar – he’s in the jungle somewhere, being experimented on – the age was right – Wolvie’s more than 200 years old.

Oh well, I love those little oddities they’ve inserted on the film. They even managed to make Emma Frost’s outfit appropriate. The Hellfire Club is also classy, and the origins of Cerebro was also inserted.

So, before I dispense more useless trivia (I’ve collected from reading the tiny print behind my old trading cards), I have to end my rant, and sleep… with two fingers on my temple ala Charles Xavier.

kuris kuris chopsuey: Present! (But may I go to the bathroom after?)

kuris kuris chopsuey: Present! (But may I go to the bathroom after?): "Name: Eric “Riki” Gerard Nebran Origins: Muppet Planet Last Seen: under the microscope Habitat: Sesame Street Diet: fastfood and coff..."

Tumblr

I am torn~ I have discovered how nice Blogger is, but I have also spent a lof time publishing at Tumblr~ I plan to transfer some of my personal posts here on Blogger, but I'll sorely miss having to publish snippets of my mundane experiences on Tumblr. I checked my archive earlier today, and I have already 400 posts, I got a screenshot, and uh, well, it's a bit nostalgic to see 'em~

Ressurected

After several hours of trying to resuscitate this Blogger account - merely by adding vanity photos and gadgets here and there, I am still frustrated by my ignorance at using HTML~ I can't even arrange the gadgets and make the layout look nice with two columns. I also spent two hours trying to embed Kermit's The Rainbow Connection here ~ all I got was the streampad which still can't play anything. Halp!

P.S. How come, when I preview this post, it's in two columns? Yay!