I heart BATANES and Iza Calzado

It's been ten years since I last visited Batanes, the province. I miss my ever cheerful Ivatan friends, the rolling green hills, the jagged cliffs, the pebbled beaches and the super clean fresh Batanes air.

This movie brings back those memories -- and makes me wish I had the cash to fly over whenever I wanted to. Alas, I am still a cog in the wheels of industry -- ergo, too poor to go off and do what I really wanted to do.

And so too, poor reader, are you.

So, let's both just go and watch this trailer of the beautiful Batanes (and Iza Calzado) together. Over and over again. (Watch the movie on the big screen, alright? Saw it last night.)


Batanes is beautifully shot. And Iza Calzado is just plain beautiful.

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If you want to know more about Batanes, click here.

He called for a revolution and no one came

Ms. Mau and Ms. Erica do High School Musical 2!

Guidance counselors make schoolkids go wild with their version of "You are the Music in Me" : )

(In case you didn't know, Mau, the singer, is my wife. GO MAU!)

No you don't have a dirty mind.

This is REALLY from a kids show from the UK.
Since this has been going around the Net for a while, here's the real score:

"it was filmed as a joke and never intended for public consumption. There was a great tradition at the BBC and ITV companies of the videotape editing departments compiling tapes for their christmas parties - including clips with shows shot especially for the internal tape.

It was recorded in 1979, when the show had been running for several years.
It was never intended to be shown on TV. In fact, the sketch was performed simply for the amusement of the cast and crew, and would have been lost to history, were it not for the
OBA 1 Christmas tape put together by Thames TV engineers."

Source: http://rainbow.arch.scriptmania.com/rainbow_tv_episode.html

japanese tetris

Not Tetris really... but very, very Japanese.

Seriously, how come I've never met a Japanese as crazy as the ones in these shows? Every Japanese person I've met was quite serious.

Stupid Tetris

These crazy, crazy, crazy Japanese!

Someone please explain to me how a nation can turn out this crazy. Please. : )

iPhone Texting Speed Test: slow as crap

Everyone seems to be lusting for the iPhone. Heck, even me.

And why not? It's sexy, it's thin, it's powerpacked, it's an Apple, it meshes welll with my Mac, etc., etc., etc.

Until reality kind of kicked in: I'm a Filipino and, you know, we Filipinos do a heck of a lot of texting.

It was all a big hypothetical question of "how the heck will I be able to text on one?" -- until I actually got the chance last Friday.

Let me tell you, it was hell. Check out this video -- no Filipino will want one after seeing how slow this guy is. And to think that the phone seems to be anchored down on something (it doesn't move at all),it's cheating!

Advice to everyone: when the iPhone comes out -- don't buy one. Wait until all your friends are dying to have someone take them off their hands. That way, you can have an iPhone cheap for your music, internet, and telephony needs! (Keep your old cellphone for texting though.)

Kevin Rudd eating ear wax during Question Time

"Hey, what's this?.... Ooooh!...
Yummy!"

Battle at Kruger

Here's something more interesting than the previous post about the battle between Lindsay Lohan and the Papparazzi.

Seriously. Don't think that a pride of lions will always win against a herd of buffaloes.

Go buffaloes!

A Day in the Life of Lindsay Lohan - HOLLYWOOD.TV

After seeing this video by HollywoodTV and Perez Hilton, I am slowly beginning to understand why Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears and Paris Hilton have become so darn self-destructive.

Seriously, these papparazzi are like crazed animals on the hunt. It's sickening and senseless and potentially dangerous. (Take the case of Lady Di)

Why these guys even bothered to create an 8 minute video, edited, captioned, and musically scored tells us that:
1. Some people will do anything to create content, mindless and useless though it may be. That's disturbing. Lindsay Lohan drinking coffee, going to the salon --- that's not news, is it?
2. There's obviously a market for this sort of thing (80,000 views for this video as I write this)

The end of the world is nigh.

"Nightmare": Hotforwords explains

You really find all sorts of videos on Youtube. This is from Marina of HotForWords. She claims to be a philologist and what she does is create videos discussing the etymology of words.

Nerdy stuff. Except that this particular nerd has more than 14,000 Youtube subscribers!

It must be her brain that attracted them all, huh?

In any case, watch the clip. I actually LEARNED something from it.

The controversial Youtube video

A spectator shot this video of Lewis Hamilton "driving erratically" behind the safety car at the Japanese Grand Prix.

As a result of Hamilton's driving, Vettel crashed into Webber's car.

Was Hamilton unprofessional? Or did he just lose control?

The FIA said he was not at fault and didn't penalize him for the incident.

What do you guys think?

---

On an aside, this incident was never caught on TV. Isn't the rise of camera phones and Youtube amazing? In the old days, this would never have come to light!

Pinoys: Get back at Desperate Housewives!

Show your indignation at Desperate Housewives by wearing this shirt! The text says "I graduated from some med school in the Philippines."



While I, personally, didn't take up medicine, many of my relatives and friends did and are doing very well, not just in the Philippines, but in the United States as well.

Now, imagine if every Pinoy doctor and nurse in the United States wore this shirt... that'll teach 'em to make fun of our medical schools!

Spread the word.

Get the shirt here.

Teri Hatcher insults Filipinos

Actually, blame the scriptwriter.

And the producer.

And the network.

Shame, shame, shame.

Please, dear Lord, for poetic justice, when these guys grow old or get sick, let them get Filipino nurses and doctors to care for them. And let the dialogue please be, " Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't treat you because I'm from the Philippines."

Wilkinson Quattro Titanium: Fight For Kisses

Sometimes I feel like the guy in this video for Wilkinson razors. Really.

LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!

Uhhhhh... ooooohkaaaaayyyyyyy.

Live Britney Spears - Gimme More (Live At MTV VMA2007)

This is a very painful video to watch.

My guess: pressure plus drugs and alcohol = one very very very sad performance.

Another Disney girl crashes to earth (again) and bites the dust (yet again).

Next up... Vanessa Hudgens. But that's another story, for another time.

What's up with these people?

Stop the bullets. Kill the gun

Here's a beautiful anti-gun spot from Choice FM, a UK hip-hop station.

I love the use of classical music -- imagine how a hip-hop listener would react to this.

Brilliant stuff.

Miss Teen USA 2007 - South Carolina needs a Pinoy teacher

This is exactly why Pinoy teachers have to go to the USA.

Let's not be selfish.

America needs us!

Why you should care about Pinoy trees, part 2

Here's part two!

Why you should care about Pinoy trees

Some work we did for Trees for Life (Clean and Green Foundation).

Part one in the series.

New Mercedes Commercial

I love this Mercedes Benz spot -- and not because of Fernando Alonso or Lewis Hamilton!

Global Warming Kills

Watch how a coral reef died in just 2 years. Watch this to see how you can actually experience deep, deep sadness over the state and decline of the environment.

Better than the real thing: iPhone China version

For those of you who really really really want to get an iPhone...

Here's one from China -- and in spite of the fact that (if you look at the date on the screen) it predates the Apple version's release by a day, it's actually better than the real thing.

At least from what I saw, it has MMS, a stylus, replaceable batteries AND you can get one for cheap from China. : )

Why I miss teaching

One day, I will teach again.

Thank you, Jason (http://jason.de-villa.net/blog/.

The Break Up

I don't think Microsoft is exactly the right organization to advocate a message like this one, it being the monopoly that virtually forces everyone to buy into Windows every time a new release comes out.


However, the message is good and worth sharing and thinking about.

the iPhone is in trouble

You don't need to know German (?) to see that Steve Jobs had better get cracking on iPhone version 2... and fast!

Kodak - Winds of Change

It takes guts to make something like this and release it to the public.

A winner, in my book.

Cowabunga!

Super cool stunt promotion for TMNT: project a teaser onto the side of a building in an area where a lot of people are bound to pass by with their camphones! A winner in buzz building.

Via: www.joshspear.com

Endangered Tales Trailer

From my friends at the Center for Environmental Awareness and Education (www.ceae.org):

Endangered Tales showing on Earth Day, April 22, 2007 @ SM Megamall Cinema 8.

Ticket Price: Pph 75.00

Starring: Visayan Leopard Cat, Flying Lemur, Calayan Rail, Hornbills, Philippine Crocodiles at iba pang mga hayup na tanging sa PILIPINAS lang makikita!

Vote Different

Now, everyone with a Mac and a Youtube account can get a million views free.

Hopefully, it translates to much more than that in terms of votes.

Sexy Beijing - Lost in Translation - Danwei TV

When the Chinese take on English names, you never know what you're going to get.

Names like "Samanfar" or "Smacker", for example.

Not sure why those who don't need English names actually go and get them -- and some people actually do NEED them, as when they work for English-speaking gweilos who don't have the tongues for the complexities and nuances of Mandarin or Fukien.

For everyone else, it must be akin to the trend among the lower classes of getting retainers so they could look cool several years ago.

On the other hand, this seems like good and bad thing at the same time. Good: the Chinese are no longer thinking of themselves as citizens of the Middle Kingdom, the only one in the world that truly matters. The bad: what are the long term effects of this kind of trend on Chinese culture?

Only time will tell.

The Secret Vegas Hummer Footage: Crushing the Nokia N76.....

It's nice to know that the N76 isn't just a darn pretty (and brainy) phone. It can also get run over by a Hummer --- and still take a call after.

Cool.

--
(fyi -- aspac/law does work for Nokia --- and was not involved in any way with this video) : )

Speed Painting with Ketchup and French Fries

Art Attack meets McDonalds.

Marc and Tom Viral Public Service Announcement

Two guys worth hiring.

Gates vs. Jobs

Who will win the epic battle between Windows and Mac?

Youtube: the picket line

These union employees from Miller Beer have figured out they can use Youtube to get the world to hear their story.

This simply wouldn't have been possible 5 years ago.

Here's hoping they have a happy ending! (And that they post a video showing what happens next.)

a horse that dances better than you

Really. This is AMAZING.

Getting Web 2.0 in under 5 Minutes

Found this amazing video explaining how Web 2.0 works and its implications.

If you're not a techie and you have no idea what the web is like in '07, this one's for you.

I can't imagine how much more simple the explanation can get.

Via Room 116

Can you do better?

... because, if you can, you get the chance to win Php100,000, $10,000 and a trip to Singapore!





Check out www.nokia-asia.com/youmakeitreel for details

Contest open to submissions from the Philippines only.

Truth in Advertising: a short film

What do you get when you write a script making people SAY what they're actually THINKING?

The funniest and perhaps the most truthful film about advertising ever made.

uh. what did i just do?

As you can see, this blog is out of whack: all the videos have been reduced to white squares.

Let this serve as a warning to all of you eager-beaver, bored-to-death people out there: do not monkey around with your blog.

I was trying to add a feed to the column on the right and tested it out on a new upgraded template and then -- poof! -- all the videos just said bye-bye. As Youtube is down at the moment, you guys will have to wait until I
a. get an answer on how to fix this
b. get the time to manually enter all the source URLs into each entry.

What a loser.

Sorry.

--- NEWSFLASH ---
Things are working again. Apparently, when Youtube goes down, everything with a Youtube link goes down as well. Whew.

Back to regular programming.

Bizarre and Disturbing Orville Redenbacher Commercial

There's a bit of a flap over this new campaign from CP+B.

Okay: maybe not just a "bit" as I haven't read any posts on how they much they love it.

I, for one, hate it. It's about as bad as the other campaign Crispin did for Haggar last year.

Crispin's point, I think: love it or hate it, you still talked about it.

My point: why get to the point where it's even an option for people to HATE your material?

Make them hate what you hate, love what you love.

But, please, don't make them hate your material. It's beginning to make me not want to even consider Orville Redenbacher because they seemed so stupid for even letting this happen.

But I'm just one person. Let's see if sales take off. My guess: a brief spike -- and then a tapering off to what it was before.

Conan's iphone commercial

It does everything (except do what it's really supposed to do)!

Well, at least, that's what the phone manufacturers hope. :)

Anyway, I was reading some blogs earlier and one of them asked this question:

How come Steve Jobs announced the iphone and yet didn't have the product on hand already?

Why announce something so exciting and yet raise the possibility of building up expectations so high (like in this spoof by Conan) and run the risk of falling flat when the product does show up (WHAT? It doesn't have a can opener?)?

It's like showing all your cards and then leaving to go to the john for a while so that the other players can figure out what to do.

Kind of like how Windows keeps announcing the new OS and yet keeps delaying it.

Strange, since in the past when Jobs makes an announcement, products are in stores the next day.

Did he hear of developments coming from the phone manufacturers and thus wanted to steal their thunder?

What gives?

One things for sure: if I was a phone manufacturer, I'd seriously produce something cooler, cheaper, more sophisticated than the iphone -- and it better have 3G. (But I realize how tough that'd be.)

When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising

Harharhar!

Haven't been able to post anything in a while, for lack of really good stuff on the Net.

Until today, that is. This is actually a video reply / spoof of an ad that monster.com came out with.

Funny -- but when I grew up, I didn't want to work in advertising. I said: I don't want to prostitute my brain.

Famous last words.