Chasing Daydreams

Just came back from a rather short honeymoon at Acuatico Beach Resort in Laiya, San Juan, Batangas. The resort wasn’t bad. The problem is we ended up with a room that was so cramped! I wasn’t able to snap a photo but the bathroom was like the shower here, the bowl beside it, and then washbasin beside it. The bedroom was similarly cramped. We stayed the night because we got there late already and we had no more time to look for alternate resorts.

But everything else was good. They got a really awesome infinity pool with a bar in the middle, good facilities, beach, and food. The resident manager and the staff were also nice and friendly. I didn’t see the other room-type but, even though expensive, it just might have ended up to be  better experience and worth it.

Getting There: Getting there is a long process (a detailed map is available here). From Metro Manila, you need to go through the full length of SLEX, exit towards Batangas, take the Star Tollway, exit towards Lipa, then to either Padre Garcia or Rosario, then to San Juan, and finally to Laiya and a long stretch of resorts accessible via a mixed gravel and concrete road. Cars can navigate the road but you’ll need to moderate your speed. Total travel time is around 3 to 4 hours.

Rates: Room rates are P5.5k for the cramped room, and 7.5k for the big room. This is inclusive of your choice American or Filipino breakfast. Food is about P100 to P300 per and drinks at less than P100 per.

Rating: 3/5

Terminator and Terminator 2 were pretty good science fiction movies. At the time of their release, the concepts were still pretty far fetched. But things are different 20 years ago. In Afghanistan, unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs which are essentially flying robots are busy assassinating suspected terrorists. In Iraq, small robots called TALONs are doing highly-dangerous bomb disposal. And the US army are thinking of arming the TALON and converting them into SWORDs. Terminator still far fetched? Definitely not. And so the newest Terminator movie, Terminator: Salvation, is less of a science fiction movie and more of an action movie. This nature is further reinforced by the use of current day weapons. The action is nothing special but at least it has an epic storyline that ties up neatly with the previous Terminator movies.

Star Trek vs Star Wars. This has been a long running debate. But regardless of the arguments Star Trek has always been the more scientific and, I dare say, more intellectual series. In short, more mature. Star Wars has always been more kid-oriented. Every succeeding release sees more and more characters destined for the toy store. Still, a lot of people, including yours truly, watched it because of the action. Mindless action but, hey, it’s fun!

With the latest Star Trek movie, they reinvented and modernized Star Trek.  They added flash and bang demanded by the new generation of viewers. But the best thing is that they managed to do this without dumbing it down… too much. And guess what? It’s all good.

Star Trek is a restart. The movie takes us back to when the USS Enterprise and its intrepid crew were just starting off. Of course, to put continuity into things, there is a link to the previous Star Trek movies and TV shows, which in this case is not really previous but from the future.

And since this involves time travel, as you have guessed, everything got mucked up good. A peace-loving turned vengeful Romulan villain got warped into the past and in an instant almost aborts Kirk. But Star Trek won’t be the same without Kirk so he was allowed to escape impending doom.

Soon after, a geriatric Spock arrives, also from the future, and was instantly captured the the waiting Romulans who then use the technology in his ship to destroy, of all planets, Vulcan. Star Trek without Vulcan?!? I guess Star Trek is still Star Trek without it. But what about the younger Spock?

Thankfully, Spock is already by then at Star Fleet where he embarks with Kirk and the rest of the gang on the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Their first mission was to stop the Romulans and, as expected, they did. How they did, is a really good watch ;)

Rating: 4/5

My sister is selling part of her accessories collection. They are either hand-made or great finds. Check them out, there are some pretty nifty-looking items there.

I just learned that Beng Liwanag, who was a supplier to my previous company, was brazenly shot while driving to work,  in broad daylight, and in a busy street intersection at that! It’s quite clear that criminals these days are not afraid to commit crimes because law enforcement is so ineffective.

Reminds me of when I was at the canonical interview. The interviewing priest, upon learning I hale from the south, commented how dangerous it is there. I wanted to say that the city is just as if not worse but I held my tongue. But yes, it is.

My condolences to Beng’s family.

I learned from Elwyna’s blog about a cat kitten killing UP student. The guy, Joseph Carlo Candare, said on his blog– yes, he even had the gall to blog about it– that he took the kitten by its tail and threw it to the ground, then “like a pro wrestler” jumped and stomped on it. I wonder how he would fare against a REAL pro wrestler. He’s a shame to all UP students, he’s even worse than the infamous rumbling frat men.

The UP administration should be filtering out student applicants with psychotic tendencies (Ooops! If that was the case I probably wouldn’t have gotten in :P). But worse, they’re not even taking action against someone who is ovbiously disturbed and has in fact broken the law, the Animal Welfare Act to be exact. He needs punishment or, at the very least, mental therapy.

Make UP act! Sign the petition!

Chei and I went to faraway Nasugbu, Batangas for our canonical interview and pre-canna seminar. While registering at the parish office, I realized I forgot the keys inside the car. The canonical interview was about to start so there was pretty much nothing we could do.

Right after the interview, we asked around for a locksmith. We eventually ended up asking some cops and one of them called and even went to fetch a locksmith he knows. Unfortunately, the guy was off on some errand and we had no choice but to wait. When he finally arrived, one of the cops accompanied all of us to the church parking lot where the car was.

The locksmith got on with unlocking the door with a tensioner and a pick. It was slow going but  it’s comforting to know that for my car locks, it’s not as easy as using a wire as I’ve seen done on a friend’s car. Eventually, he succeeded in turning the lock but he found out he was turning it the wrong direction! So he started again on the other direction, gave up, moved to the other door and eventually succeeded.

Once the door was open, the cop checked my license and registration which was a good thing: he’s doing his job. Once he was satisfied, I thanked him and he left. I paid the locksmith, thanked him, and he too left. It was a just modest amount and at least I didn’t have to go back home just to get my spare key. Whew!

Chei and I we’re on the way to Tagaytay for a photo shoot when we heard over the radio that Pacquiao won. On the second round, no less. Soon as I got home, I downloaded the fight. It helped that the coverage was only for two round so in just a short while I was already watching the fight. What can I say? Pacquiao was awesome! He literally demolished Hatton. He just keeps getting better and better.

When I first heard the term, “pre-nup” from Crissy,I thought was referring to a pre-nuptial agreement between her and then-fiance Jimmy. I was surprised because I thought it was something reserved only for the mega-rich. I turned out that she was referring to a pre-wedding photo shoot. Kinda made sense :P

When I saw the results, during their wedding reception, as well as in others’, I was mightily unimpressed. The objective, it seemed to me, was to capture a regular day in the life of the engaged couple. But for some reason, there was something wrong and it looked fake… staged. I resolved back then that I won’t have anything to do with it.

Fast forward to now when Chei and I just finished our own “pre-nup” shoot (guess who wanted the shoot and who agreed out of love :P). I was scanning through the photos and recalled how, during the shoot, the photographer and the videographer were making us do poses we wouldn’t do in reality. They were awkward, uncomfortable, and just plain off. That, I think, is why the photos looked fake and staged.

Something to watch out for when I shoot “pre-nups” :P

I first learned about GMABooster from YugaTech. It’s a utility for speeding up the Intel GMA 950 graphics chip, which happens to be the graphics chip of my Asus EEE PCs (as well as most other netbooks). But unfortunately, the first time I downloaded it, it doesn’t seem to launch at all. I tried installing and reinstalling it as well as the .NET framework (yeech!) to no avail. Last night, I tried it again by downloading the latest version and it finally worked. I can now speed up the clock speed from the default 166Mhz to a whopping 400MHz. It’s no GeForce but higher detail levels is now possible with DOTA. Not bad for a free download.