"History remembers the battle and forgets the blood"

From Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

I just told the kitten to "go upstairs" to my son's room (she doesn't have her own room d'uh.)

Happy National Cat Day, have a care out there on the East.

#NationalCatDay
#MyLifeUpdates

I have no word for this. Just none.

#DC

#JoeKubert

#legend

"He read with nothing but appetite--without discrimination or judgment, sometimes without understanding." - Peter Straub's Mystery (Happy International Book Week)

Listening to Elvenking, Jon Anderson and LCD Soundsystem on shuffle is an experience.

So now that the office computer is back online, time to continue downloading those full videos from YouTube.

O joy.

#Tekken
#36ShaolinFists

On a commuter train otw to work with my wallet TOTALLY empty.

I amaze myself oft times.

#emailpost
#gpoy

The Dark Knight Rises review, or How I Learned To Hold On To My Bladder Inside A Freezing Theater

Amidst the numbing cold inside the theater, the grand opening action sequence that cries “Globetrotting international border-crossing spy action-techno-thriller!”, Anne Hathaway’s terribly useless Catwoman portrayal and the said Catwoman’s like-a-puppet-on-a-string-with-marionette-with-arthritic-fingers-controlling-it unbelievable “fight” sequences, illogical plot points within the multilayered story the movie has to offer, crazy-ass car-motorcycle-trucks-choppers-Tumblers(!)-chase sequences, decent fisticuffs (still too close to the camera for my taste, but then again this is not a martial arts film), comic Bane moments, comic Bane comments, always adorable Cillian Murphy’s appearance as The Scarecrow (His cameo in The Dark Knight is hilarious), and annoying editing at times, Bane’s speech delivered with that haunting voice before the storming of Blackgate really added to the shivers. And I cannot help but nodding to some of the points. Okay, some cheesiness in that speech but overall, wheew…

How does Bane eat, tho’?

What's up with gmail on Google Chrome ?

mailblogging from Firefox 15 naturally

"I guess a soldier always hopes that once he kills all the people who want to kill him, then he can try to laying down his sword."

- General Reibisch (Terry Goodkind's Blood Of The Fold)

"... Those who have listened do not find it easy to talk; they keep their sorrows and joys to themselves and tell no one."

Hercule Poirot

"... We have always associated movement with life and the passage of time, but from my experience ... I know that all motion leads inevitably to death, and that time is its servant."

-- J.G. Ballard (Crystal World)

That bleedin' moment when you're textblogging lika a bauz on a commuter train and suddenly a blank spot

So here's a picture of Mochi playing dead under a rubber snake

#gpoy
#txtblogging

Boring class was boring

So I drew my students

#personal
#doodle
#kid

See the full gallery on Posterous

I may be return to ghostwriting again in a few days.

Not a certainty but pretty rxciting nevertheless.

#personal
#writing
#ghostwriting
#MeGhosta
#gpoy

When you are writing an email to an editor, then you stop to check your writing mechanics

I've been totally swamped this last five days and I've turned down, like, three writing assignment (One of which I was actually really eager to sink my teeth into but asaddfasjdhajfhadsfa). Depression it comes a-calling 

Upon checking my kid's homework:

What is a mountain range: Gravity
What is a range of hills: Gravity
How does one differ the height level of lowlands and highlands: Gravity
How do you prove that the Earth is round: Gravity

#school
#parenthood
#wut?

I've been listening to Steel Panther and can't get over how delinquently Freudian messed up these guys are. At least lyrics-wise, 'cause they can actually play.

I visited my dad's grave yesterday; grass as high as four feet covering it (it took me twenty minutes to find the grave). It's an old graveyard and it doesn't accept any more burial I believe. Both my lower arms have these scratches and they itch and hurt at the same time.

Angry Birds Space is wicked fun OMG

" GeorgeCarIin What's the difference between a commercial rapper and a pile of shit? 'The pile of shit does not peddle drug-induced lyrics to the people!' "

George Carlin on Tweeter

#quote
#quotes
#tweeter

"Pulling the trigger is like ordering take out."

-- Mad Dog (The Raid: Redemption)

#quotes

The Raid

I went to see The Raid (changed to The Raid: Redemption for whatever reason) at a cineplex on Sunday. The movie is rated R, I was aware of that, but what I didn’t know was that it was a blood porn—nope, not the kind of the so-called gore porn with hot sweaty babes in sweat-drenched tank tops running around jiggling their magumbos and screaming at top of their lungs before getting their throat slit or something, which is kind of a good thing ‘cause those screams can really get to you after two or three seconds. The Raid is a blessed adult entertainment filled with frame after frame after frame of glorious blood and spittle flying and dripping, sweat running profusely, bullets piercing just about any visible body parts and bodies slammed against the walls, tables, chairs, through windows, and other furniture the filmmakers could get their hands on.

The plot, which is as utterly ridiculous as any public officials’ campaign promises, failed to make me dislike this movie: It is a martial-arts action movie with martial arts and actions bumped up a notch higher than any action movies I have seen in the last, oh IDK, a more than a decade, mayhap (CMIIW, but there has not been an action movie in terms of rawness, like John Woo’s Bullet in the Head, The Killer, Hard Boiled or A Better Tomorrow II, or Ringo Lam’s Full Contact and Prison on Fire, just to name a few, and some crazy kickass action flicks, only Luc Besson or Robert Rodriguez of old could direct or produce). The acting of some of the cast made me cringe in my seat once or twice, especially knowing some of the them are regulars in Indonesian drama series, whose plot, dialogs, settings, acting—heck, everything—are more ridiculous than any politicians’ campaign materials.

The very simple premise of the movie—a SWAT team infiltrating a tenement owned by a sadistic crime lord to bring the said crime lord to justice gone awry due to some reasons or others which I cannot exactly grasp (All I know is that some corrupt officials are involved.)—paves the way to a long barrage of shot-em-up actions that starts before you can even pronounce the lead actor’s name. Aparently, just about everyone living in this building is working for Tama, the crime lord, so the members of the SWAT team don’t find it even slightly morally questionable to blow a kid’s head (Heck, them darned kids screamed out their presence and hit the frickin’ alarm, for crying out loud). And, from the moment the first bullet flies, it’s an all out carnage of blood and scream and, well, more blood, until the last bullet shell tinkling onto the floor.

What follows is wave after wave of beautifully choreographed fights that run from seconds to close to seven minutes. The movie, I’m sure, is inspired by the likes of Die Hard and many of its progeny, and many of the survival horror video games: People running or shuffling along the corridors with their bloodied hands on the walls leaving trails of blood and maniac killers (or creatures) following close behind with machetes in hands.

Iwo Kuwais, the lead actor, and Yayan Ruhaiyan, who plays the crazy, scary yet perversely lovable right hand man of Tama’s, Mad Dog, are both genuine article Pencak Silat martial artists, and they choreographed the intricate fight scenes in The Raid. They also did their own stunts so what we have here are my two new action movie stars. Okay, so Iwo may lack the commanding presence of, say, Jet Lee, Tony Jaa, or Dwayne Johnson, but damn if he doesn’t know his craft. Those of you who have seen and who enjoy Iwo Kuwais and the director, Gareth Evans’s first collaboration, a martial arts actioner, Merantau (2009), will fall in love all over again with The Raid. I know I do.

 The fights are visceral, ridiculously painful to watch and really bloody, yet with balletic precision which is just damned enjoyable for those who are into martial arts free from today’s Hong Kong and Hollywood heavily wired actions. Thinks Thailand’s Tony Jaa’s best action films and multiply that by at least three.

All the cast and crew involved in the production must share mutual love in what they do, especially the cast and the stunt people, waking up everyday and going the set knowing they may suffer from broken bones before lunch break, but the result is simply fabulous.

The cinematographer, Matt Flannery, has done a terrific job, adopting those jerky camera moves ala Jason Bourne series only for the dialog, but opting wide angle and steady camera shots for action scenes, so that all that carnage is splendidly clear to see and you know when to close your eyes if you can’t  stomach anymore of the violence actions. And the sound…man, (SPOILER ALERT!) when Mad Dog was torturing Jaka in a room, the sound of his fist hitting Jaka’s body is muffled with the camera representing Iwo’s character, Rama, running towards the room, but as the camera moves into the torture chamber the sound of the fist against Jaka’s torso just exploding is really out there. And the following dance these three people (Rama and Jaka against Mad Dog) do in that room may be one of the best fight sequences in movie history.

So, The Raid with all its flaws, notably the plot, story and some of the acting of, I regret to say, the senior actors in the movie thanks of years of experience they harvest playing Indonesian television dramas is one that pleasantly surprises me and one that I want to see more Indonesian film makers pour their blood, sweat and tears for making them.

Silliness:

• You may have a feeling that I truly hate Indonesian soap operas. Well.
• The audience cheered and clapped hands at the end of the Jaka-Rama-Mad Dog threesome. I didn’t. I was busy grabbing popcorn.
• Tama when grinning evilly close to the end of the movie with a little white powder on the face and blood red lipsticks could easily become the demoniac portrait of The Joker. Hot!

We're waiting for The Raid to start (my wife, my cousin and i) while my kids and their cousin are still waiting for Lorax next door. Yep, we leave them kids to their own devices (stock em with enuff popcorn and something...)
#fatherhood

"Pity was not love, Barbie reflected . . . but if you were a child, giving clothes to someone who was naked had to be a step in the right direction."

-- Stephen King (Under The Dome)

doodle i made using this six-colored ballpoint

That awkward moment when you forget how to spell faxsimile, facsimilie, faximail, vjasd;b;asufslfkdasngls

Whoohoo it's gonna be a crazy fever-laden rest of the week.

Will need them reserved energy like you won't believe.
#MyLifeUpdates

"It is a very hard life. Men will not be nice to you if you are not good-looking, and women will not be nice to you if you are."

-- The Man in the Brown Suit (Agatha Christie-1924)

#quotes
#Aawww

I whispered into my mother's dead ears just minutes after her passing that I'd join her shortly. Shortly.

13 years on and I'm still here.
Cuz I spew bullshit like no other.

#confession
#rants

I may appear to have some needs of some people in the world, but the one I will constantly need is my mother.

And she's been dead 13 years.

Fuck. My. Life.

Three big BIG points ALL for Evra. Sheesh...

What's with this guy?
#MUFC
#LFC
#BPL
#Liverpool
#YNWA

Check out the cheap six-color ballpoint I just got OMG

#GPOY
#totheMAX
#eyesore
#sorreeeeee

I'm in the john with nothing but my smartphone

So I'm reading Google's new Term and Service.

#TMI
#EmailPost
#MyLifeUpdates

Why is it that everytime I’m in the middle of a BIG rain (such as now), I’d start humming peter Gabriel’s Here Comes the Flood?

Once upon a time it was Rhythm of the Rain. Jason Donovan's cover.

Nice looking sky

Not

#RainandAllThat

"'A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies,' ... 'The man who never reads lives only one.'"

-- George R.R. Martin (A Dance With Dragons)