Showing posts with label Geek Stuff. Show all posts

There was a time when people appreciated literary genius. There was a time when Filipino movies were actually art. There was a time when journalism was an actual profession. And there was a time when dumb people don't get to have a say.

The thing is, good writers are nearing extinction. And it's not even because we're running out of mojo here. I mean come on, there's hardly a completely original thing anymore. Everything is partly derivative.

I have always dreamed of becoming a prolific writer. I mean, it doesn't even have to be to the levels of Stephen King (sheer volume) or JRR Tolkien (Legendary!). I mean, just a published trilogy would be nice (come on, if it's in the fantasy genre, there's no way it'll be finished in book one). Then again that might be asking for too much. Fine, a one-hit-wonder like JD Salinger is really a dream in itself (Don't hate me Salinger fans, but really, do you expect anyone else who knows anything aside from Catcher in the Rye?)

That dream is gone. I say I have let that one go, but I know there's a part of me that still dreams of creating that fiction masterpiece. So I admire Ramon Bautista, who's living my dream of a fantastic webisodes series. I admire Macky Cruz who's still on her way to writing that novel of hers. I envy JK Rowling because of her rags to riches success story. What was it really? Did they take a swig of some mead of poetry? Deal with the devil? There's no way to know how genius occurs.

But I can tell you how success happens. Take the names Stephanie Meyer and EL James. between those two are millions of revenue for extremely bad writing. This is proof that there's no need to be a good writer when you are trapped in a sea of BAD READERS.

This limiter to artistic heights is also evident in television and cinema (here in the Philippines at least). The reason this country still has sappy soap operas on primetime TV is because the better TV shows never get ratings for the masses who simply can't comprehend anything more complicated than tears and vengeance.

So kudos to real writers out there, who continue to improve the craft despite not getting financial success. In behalf of the country's population, I apologize for them dimwitted fools.

Here comes the occasional emo post of this blog.

My first encounters with SM North was way back in high school. When the school has a field trip, on the way home, the bus will stop over at what us promdis used to call "SM City." And it was awesome. You see, that's the difference between the city and the province. The awesome malls. And SM North was quite big.

Anyway, while most of my schoolmates would hit Bench or Marcella for whatever trinkets to bring home, I'd go straight to the World of Fun arcade in SuperSales Club. They had this game you see, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. It was based from a cartoon/comic back in the early 90s. I'd buy five tokens to play that game. (I could only afford five at four pesos each)

That habit spilled over to college when I went to QC to study in UP. And that's when most of my SM North memories happened.

SM North became a major landmark for me. I had to walk by it every time I go to school. Back then, I didn't have Internet (or a PC for that matter). So I had this favorite Internet cafe behind SM North. It was ran by a tomboyish lady who we call Ate. A lot of research and papers were done in that store. And also hours and hours of Counter Strike, Half-Life, Serious Sam, Battle Realms, Warcraft III, and StarCraft.

Also behind SM North, was a carinderia I used to frequent. It was tackily named Point Point after the Pinoy term "turu-turo." They had the best grilled liempo. And they loved me there. I always get big servings. Haha. A few blocks away from that is a pancitan place called Tai-Tai Estero-Style cuisine or whatever. They had the best lechon kawali ever. They also make good pancit (they're better known for the pancit).

Still in that area, was a Playstation rental place that doesn't have a name. We finished Metal Gear Solid, Megaman X4, X5, and X6 there. We also got addicted to Bust-a-Groove and fighting game called Bushido Blade. There were a lot of pesky kids in that place. They always thought we played the weirdest games. Later they got addicted to the games we play. They respected us a lot. To them, we were probably gaming gods. It was in this shop where we discovered a crazy Japanese game called Incredible Crisis.

Just in front of that Playstation place was a hardcore gym called Perfect Shape. That's where Jeff and I used to work out. If you haven't noticed it yet, when I say "we" in this post, it's usually Jeff and me. Friendly people, rusty equipment, absent air-conditioning. That place was the best. I got at my fittest working out at that place.

Around third year college, I finally got a PC of my own. Unfortunately, still no Internet. By that time, Ate's Internet cafe was gone. She said it was too stressful and her business partners (friends) did not quit their jobs as she did so she was left alone to tend to the business. This was also the time we got addicted to downloading stuff. Anime pictures, mp3s, Internet babes... The works.

Not a lot of Internet cafes let you download and save your stuff back then. And flash disks were just gadgets we used to dream about that time. Luckily, there was an Internet cafe called Tomato Bytes. It was run by Kuya Rhom, and it was a console gaming and LAN gaming place plus Internet cafe. There, we played Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Onimusha, Devil May Cry, Tekken Tag, Street Fighter EX3, Capcom Vs. SNK, and other PS2 games. We also befriended other gaming dudes there, guys we only know by faces.

Speaking of gaming friends, while still quite addicted to console gaming that time, we made a couple of friends in the World of Fun arcade (mentioned earlier) over Tekken Tag Tournament. It was an out-of-school youth called Butchukoy and a that time student from FEU guy who we call Julia Guy (His Tekken character was Julia Chang).

Ok, so roughly 700 words later, I'm still just at the outskirts of SM North memories. I think I'll have to cut this post into multiple parts. Until then!

Been idle on the personal blogging scene for a while. And still after all the time off, I got nothing to write about. For the past month and a half, I've been doing lots of ridiculously technical writing. Also been reading blogs of other people.

Anyway, I changed the template of this blog again. Made it all papa cologne-y (turned out to very gay instead).

On to updates, Sam Raimi is set to direct the World of Warcraft movie! Woot! Read up on that here. I also finally found the time to watch How I Met Your Mother and I have to say haylaveeet! It just might be the Friends of this generation. Kinda like the way Friends was the Cheers of my generation. Marathoned Seasons 1-3. I'm now slowing down Season 4 because then it'll be a long wait till September.

Come late September, the barrage of much awaited shows begins : Season 2 of Fringe, season 4 of Heroes, season 2 of Dollhouse, season 6 of House. Wee! I'm out of things to say, so here's... Title Card Frenzy!