Rummaging through the stack

Finally having the time (and willingness to exert the effort), I presently find myself typing away in a futile attempt to play catch-up with everything left unpublished. As the title says, I find myself sifting through a ton of topics I wanted to post but never really got around to doing. Bursts of inspiration come from the most unfortunate of circumstances, like when I'm in the shower or on the road, where my computer is not at all accessible. In order to not let good ideas go to waste, I struggle to remember them all, but in the end the power of procrastination defeats me and all my efforts are for naught (since I end up forgetting everything). So please excuse me if this entry seems to be a bit too much of a hodgepodge for anyone's tastes.

*man, I must be getting really rusty.. my grammar and sentence construction sucks! :P

 As promised, I shall blog about the Med Mission I went to the other day..

The shirts were free! :D

I was fortunate enough to be invited by one of my former UST clerks to join a Medical and Surgical mission he organized for his church there in Naic, Cavite. Our group was composed of some of his medschool classmates who will be starting their respective post-graduate internships this coming May 1, along with several members of the UST-FMS  Phi Sigma Gamma fraternity and the Theta Lamba Phi sorority.

It was an overnight trip, with the mission team meeting up in front of the UST Paypark McDonald's at around 3pm. We were then taken to this place called E.M's Resort there in Cavite where we were billeted for the night. The place wasn't really much to look at, but at least the rooms were air-conditioned, and cable tv was available. We were advised to pack swimgear as there was a pool at the resort. Like the venue, it wasn't really much to look at, but was large enough for my needs. The pool suffers for want of lighting though, since the far end has no lamps. Man, it felt really great to be in the water again! :D

Our host, "kuya" Alvin made good on his promise of keeping us well-fed. We had a sumptuous dinner and had a few drinks before calling it a night. The former clerkies introduced me to a rather strange concoction I had not encountered before, composed of vodka, Del Monte Fit and Right, and Jungle Juice! :P

As usual, I had trouble sleeping in a different bed, and wound up getting only about a hour's worth of real shut eye (since I wasn't accustomed to sleeping on a couch). We needed to be ready by 7am the following morning for a whole day's worth of work. After a quick shower, I felt really refreshed as I breathed in the clean country air. :)

Medical..

I was told that we were expecting A LOT of patients to drop by, so I picked a spot an hunkered down for what would be one of the longest OPDs I have ever experienced. Initially, I was only one of 2 licensed physicians on hand (and I believe that I was the senior one at that), so I busied myself with the consults, not bothering with the circumcisions since the undergrad fratboys (and sorgirls) had that pretty much covered. 

...and Surgical.

After a long day's work (with plenty of food in between), I was told that the final tally was 250 OPD consults, and 200 circumcisions. Not bad for a ragtag bunch on incoming  interns, a former NeuroPsych resident, and some frat and sor people for reinforcement. ;)

I'll definitely miss this group of clerks 

After a short break back at the resort, we were finally on our way home. Travelling via Coastal road is not as fast as SLEX, but it gets the job done. Besides, I think it's the favored route for that particular destination. Not a bad way to spend Maundy Thursday, eh? :P

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I recently tried out the Angry Birds game to see what the fuss was all about. I thought it was really crazy the way people have gone cuckoo over it.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the addictiveness of the game. Despite only playing via the PC version, this slingshot action puzzle game can really suck you in, trying to destroy green-skinned pigs hiding amidst ramshackle structures using different angry avian creatures of varying firepower. :P

I look at this game with a grain of salt though, as I sadly remember the golden age of PC gaming way back when games were not played as casually as they are now.

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I was able to catch Alice and the Wonderland the other day on Star Movies, and I immediately fell in love with the quirky character of the White Queen played by Anne Hathaway.

She seems like such an enigma.. An isle of calm and simple strength amidst a tumultuous environment, all the while acting a little crazy and confused.. Oh, and she's quite the looker too. :P Props to Hathaway for her performance in this one. I had written her off to be typecast as the helpless goody two shoes character but this one really changed the playing field. Pardon my silly movie tastes, but I'd give her an award for this one, just because. :P

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I've also been playing catch-up with the Transformers series. Not being able to watch regularly as a kid left me with a sense of yearning, since I only caught a few snippets of the war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Now, I have been granted the wonderful opportunity to watch the entire classic series in full.

Awwwwwwwww Yeeeaaaaaaahh!!

I couldn't care less for the abomination that was Beast Wars. What kind of crap was that? Prime, an ape? I know sometimes the Transformers had organic looking forms like Ravage, Laszerbeak, the insecticons, Dinobots, etc, but that dosen't justify making an ugly-as-hell series which turned my childhood upside down. Heck, I never even bothered to watch a single minute of it. Just seeing it in commercials made me want to puke.

I think I'll get along very well with this guy. :P

2012

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Action & Adventure

It my seem a little weird, but I'm a fan ofapocalypse-themed movies. It's not because I have this weird sadistic streak which wants to see everyone killed off, but rather I find myself fascinated by the struggle to save humanity, to protect our way of life, and how people would eventually start anew (although this last one isn't usually shown at all before the movie ends).

*SPOILERS AHEAD

Keeping up with all the hype surrounding the apocalyptic prediction of the Mayan calendar which puts 2012 as "the year" in which a great cataclysmic event would destroy the world as we know it, Columbia Pictures gives us the creatively titled "2012", a film built around the premise that a solar event of massive proportions would cause the Earth to erupt in chaos.

For this review, I won't go into charcters and their development since these seem to be of little consequence in a story as grand as this, so forgive me. :P Besides, when I sat down and thought about it, the story would have gone this way anyways.

The concept is intriguing, if not somewhat silly. A huge solar flare is released from the sun's surface. Normally, solar flares would throw a harmless amount of subatomic particles like neutrinos our way. Since the solar flare in question is said to be massive, they are numerous enough to cause a physical reaction. In this case, they are heating up the Earth's core! THis is where it starts to make sense.. With the core heating up, the layers beneath the crust heat up as well, becoming more fluid and thereby destabilizing the crust. This results in massive seismic activity around the globe, giving rise to super-volcanoes, causing numerous powerful earthquakes, and effectively fissuring the Earth like a clay pot on a really-really hot day. :P The fun dosen't stop there, as plate tectonics also involve the oceans, triggering MASSIVE tidal waves that swallows up continents whole. Another interesting take on the whole thing was the shifting of the earth's magnetic fields, causing the south pole to be located in.. Wisconsin? :P

Upon recieving this alarming news of what was to come, the nations of the world begin a top secret project to save humankind (or at least a small portion of it) before its too late. A select number of individuals are taken into these giant "arks", which unfortunately were not spaceships as I previously thought (boo!). These arks would enable the last vestiges of humanity who are safely aboard to ride out the worldwide tidal waves when they hit. Nestled deep in the Himalayas, the arks would be relatively safe from the crust going loco and would only have to contend with the massive amounts of water coming afterwards. Oh, did I mention that they would be taking in animals too? Coz you can't have an Ark without animals, you dig? :P

The selection of people who would come aboard and save their asses was pretty obvious. The would get the best and the brightest that humanity would have to offer, to ensure that the best genes would survive (?). Obviously, the ultra-rich would be welcome aboard as well, after paying a hefty sum (1 million Euros/pax if I remember the movie right). I admire the realism of the movie in this regard. I had a fleeting thought that a lottery would have been a much fairer way to determine who lives and dies, but announcing a lottery would be tantamount to dooming the entire race. Going public abould the impending disaster with the dire news that there are only very limited seats available for survival would cause widespread panic, massive unrest and worldwide anarchy since humans would naturally put their own survival first. Harsh words indeed, but if the riots did happen and conflicts did escalate, nobody might make it to the arks alive.. or maybe a few douchebags who were able to forcibly take control and save their asses. Makes you wonder what kind of good post-apocalyptic society would spring forth from that, huh?

Things go a bit awry when the process of the core heating up goes faster than expected. The call for evacuation is sent out and the "chosen ones" make a mad scamble towards the mountains. The people are loaded into the ships, just as the tidal waves come forth over the FREAKIN' HIMALAYAS! After surviving the initial impact (which the arks were supposedly built to withstand), I would assume that they went about aimlessly while waiting for the waters to go down. Finally, after a couple of months, they are able to unseal the hatches as they set sail to repopulate the Earth with Africa as their starting point as the entire African continent had risen thousands of feet since the disaster and was presumed to be out of the water already.

Like I said, it definitely woul have been interesting how they would reestablish society and make a new beginning, but sadly, it's just a movie, a disaster movie at that. The happy ending provided, and whatever happens next is often left up to your own imagination.

4 1/2 out of 5 since the suspense scenes really kept me on my toes and the disaster they showed was nothing like I've ever seen before. I mean, I've seen "worse" planet-busting situations, but there wasn't really anything exciting going on when Alderaan was destroyed by the Death Star. :P

Avatar

Rating:	★★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

At long last, I finally managed to scrape together the time to post this review! Watched this movie with the family during a Sunday when I was "from" duty. At first I was hesitant to watch, seeing as I was really tired and badly needed sleep, but the movie didn't disappoint AT ALL.. :D

See related video: http://brainiaxmd.multiply.com/video/item/43
I wont go into so much detail with the plot, but I hope I will do it some justice here..

The story kicks off with some guy named Jake leaving a dying Earth behind for some distant moon (Pandora) found in the Alpha Centauri system to be involved in a weird-ass "Avatar" program, wherein people hardwired themselves to genetically-engineered creatures made to resemble the indegenous sentient life-forms there on the planet, with the goal of winning the hearts and minds of the Na'vi populace and conducting extensive scientific research at the same time. As we all know, exploration and colonization is not all fun-and-games. Along with the research teams are a group of paramilitary marine-type forces which are tasked to secure the foothold on the strange new world, which would eventually serve as the antagonists in the movie. The world of Pandora is also home to a strange new (and very valuable) mineral called "Unobtanium" which is the main reason the "Corporation" came to Pandora in thew first place.

As the story progresses, Jake masters the use of his Avatar, and while on a routine scouting mission, gets separated from his group and encounters a wild jaguar-like creature called a Thanator. He eventually gets saved by a female Na'vi named Neytiri. She brings him to her tribe (the Omatikaya) and, to cut a long story short, eventually gets accepted as one of them. However, before Jake becomes totally immersed with the Na'vi and turns native, he agrees to spy for the military faction which are eying the "base tree" of the Omaticaya, seeing as it sits right smack on top of a huge deposit of Unobtanium. The humans eventually attack and overrun the great tree, much to the dismay of Jake and his fellow researchers. The tribe runs for the shelter of their Tree of Souls, kind of like a central hub for their culture and religion which allows them to interface with nature. Jake and the other Na'vi sympathizers are imprisoned for their betrayal, but are busted loose by a pilot named Trudy who is disgusted by the strong-arm tactics of the corporation. The renegades set up shop at a remote scientific outpost safely hidden from scanners due to intense magnetic interference in the area. Jake eventually manages to win back the natives' trust by taming Toruk, a badass dinosaur-like flying creature that a total on only 5 Na'vi have ever managed to tame. He eventually assembles the different Na'vi tribes together in a sort of "final stand" against the human marauders who have made it there objective to launch a preemptive strike on the Tree of Souls to force the locals to submit. With a little help from the mother godess Eywa, the Na'vi repel the invaders and eventually kick the humans off-planet.

Apart form the computer-generated visual spectacle that defined Avatar, I was really impressed by the depth of the culture created for the Na'vi people, especially the fact that they even created a whole new language just for the movie. The neural interface between the Na'vi and their animals/environment was pretty cool too. With a compelling storyline and all the right bells and whistles attached to it, Avatar was really well worth the money and time we spent in the cinema. Definitely a must-have for your home-video collection.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Rating:	★★★★
Category:	Movies
Genre:	Science Fiction & Fantasy

Last Thursday after I passed my application requirements at the hospital, I skipped on over to Greenhills since I had the day to myself. Suddenly it hit me.. It was the opening day of Harry Potter 6! I went for the 12:45 showing para walang kalaban. Hehehe

The movie was all that we've grown to expect through the years from a Harry Potter movie, all the while maintaining a distinct flavor which sets each book of the series apart from the rest.

*WARNING TO THOSE WHO HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK. SPOILERS AHEAD*

Not surprisingly, this movie takes a much darker tone right from the very beginning. It also shows a bit too much of the hormonally-charged preoccupations of the main characters of the series, but then again, I think they're just being true to the text. :P

J.K. Rowling's storytelling comes alive yet again. The Vanishing cabinet is exactly the way I imagined it when I read the book. The quidditch sequences were both intense and comical (particularly Ron's), but I feel that they were too short and left me wanting for a lot more. More quidditch plz!!! :P They did a really good job on the scenes where Harry and Dumbledore went to retrieve the horcrux, although I think the "trial of Dumbledore" as I'd like to call it, was a bit watered down so as not to scare off the kids.

Special effects were still aplenty in this movie, but It was nowhere near the visual spectacle they put together in the fifth movie where you had the battle scenes in the Ministry of Magic.

I think the way they portrayed Dumbledore's death was brilliant. After he was zapped by Snape, a kind of haunting music could be heard in the background as the Death Eaters made their way out of the castle (unopposed! Was that how they left in the book? Parang hindi ata...oh well), after which they showed the entire studentry, faculty and staff standing around the body of Dumbledore and lifting their glowing wands to displel the Death Eater symbol hanging ominously above the castle grounds.

I'll give it a 4/5 because although I found it really great, it didn't give anything totally unexpected or breathtaking, and I was frustrated with the relative lack of magic.. but then again, maybe that's just me. ;)

Dune buster

I seldom do movie reviews, but this tasted so bad, I just had to spit it out...

I just watched the original Dune movie (courtesy of my super scifi collector cousin), and it SUCKED.. REALLY BAD!! Good Lord, Inever expected it would be that pathetic. I understand that it will not measure up to today's effects and whatnot 'coz it's pretty old film, but that's not the problem..

The storytelling was outright confusing! Scene transitions were too abrupt, and character development was mediocre at best as it left too many questions hanging about the different personalities you see in the film.. To avoid bias, I watched this movie BEFORE I read the actual novel. Although you could say I was "blinded" by the measure I took, the screenplay still didn't feel right, and you could really sense that there were a lot of things lacking..

I mean, I finished the movie wondering "What the hell just happened?" It has a very weak storyline, quite surprising since it was based upon an epic novel which recieved critical acclaim. When I got around to reading the book, things just got a whole lot worse.. I discovered that many things were removed, and original plotlines convoluted. It doesn't do any bit of justice to the Dune franchise.. (well, the sandworms were pretty cool, I'll give them that..) This has got to be the worst ever movie adaptation of a novel that I have ever seen.. Tsk tsk tsk...What a waste...