Not that I’m having fun in this particular time of year. But there are no classes and that makes it all better. Sigh. Finals. Urgh.
Meanwhile, my “screw-school” side decided to learn something new. A piece for the piano. I’m just glad I’m actually doing something instead of just sleeping, eating, sleeping, surfing the net, sleeping, watching movies, and sleeping. Oh, and did I mention sleeping? I’m turning out to be quite a sloth these days. Ew.
So, yeah. I learned to play Victor’s piano solo from the Corpse Bride. It sounds cool. Slightly haunting and gothic. Danny Elfman rocks. If you wanna try it yourself, you can download the sheet music here thanks to Desira at My Piano.
And then I watched Step Up, 300 and Hannibal Rising. Step Up has an extremely overused plot but was still funny at times. After having seen a lot of hiphop/modern dancing films, I’d say the choreography was average and I liked Miles the producer’s music [especially the violin riffs]. 300 was gory and brutal, as expected [but not as gory and brutal as I expected]. And it really reminds you that it was adapted from a graphic novel by Frank Miller [keyword: graphic and Frank Miller. Remember Sin City?]. Hannibal Rising made me wanna know more about the morbid life of Hannibal Lecter. The guy who plays Hannibal [found out his name is Gaspard Ulliel] looks like he could be a decent vampire. Sometimes, I couldn’t understand what the characters were saying, though, seeing as Li is Chinese and Gaspard is French [hello, accents?].

Here are the movies that I’m gonna be looking forward to this 2007. And of course, I want to see Spider-Man 3, but it’s not in the list because of a number thing [ugly number? ].
May 25, 2007 - Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End
I’m so excited about this movie. I mean, after seeing the second installment? Come on, the ending was a total cliff hanger. I need to see this if only to satisfy my curiosity. Plus, of course, there’s Johnny Depp. Even though he supposedly "died" in the second movie, we all know he’s coming back. I mean, what’s the point if there’s no [Captain] Jack Sparrow?
July 4, 2007 - Transformers
I’m not really into robots and stuff, but I found the trailer slightly interesting. And besides, it stars Josh Duhamel [Tad Hamilton in Win A Date With Tad Hamilton…;-)] and Shia LaBeouf [the kid in Holes, a movie adaptation of a book with the same title by Louis Sachar]. Might be worth checking out.
July 13, 2007 - Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix
Ehem…do I really have to explain this?
August 10, 2007 - Stardust
An adaptation of a novel by Neil Gaiman. I haven’t really read any of his books, but he seems to be a popular author. I’ve gotten the idea that his stories are more into the fantasy genre and sort of weird. Just my type. And the trailer looks really interesting, too.
December 7, 2007 - His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
This is another adaptation of a novel [a trilogy, in fact. Just like Lord of the Rings. ] by Philip Pullman. I’ve read all three books in the trilogy and I loved it. I seriously couldn’t put it down even if it was ‘wordy‘ and ‘descriptive‘, if you know what I mean. The story is unique, too, in a way…and so are the characters. I recommend you read the novels. Or if you’re not the reading type, then just go and see the movie when it’s out.

If any of you have read the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson [and liked it], then you should check the movie out: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, and Part 10 [thanks to MartynaG for uploading the movie in YouTube]. It’s good.

I’ve finally found a way to get my occasional fix of TV episodes: torrent downloads! It’s especially handy when you don’t have television at home. Like me.
And being a newbie, I had to familiarize myself with all this torrent stuff. I don’t know exactly how it works, but as long as I get my TV…who cares?

Okay. So first things first. Before you download any torrent file, you first have to get a BitTorrent client. I use uTorrent (and sometimes BitTorrent). You can download uTorrent here: uTorrent 1.6 Standalone (170 kB) or uTorrent 1.6 Installation Program (597 kB). Once you’ve installed your BitTorrent client, you’re ready to download torrent files. These are small files that you open in your BitTorrent client so you can start downloading media. There are lots of sources of torrent files in the web. I use Torrentz as my torrent search engine.
When choosing which torrent files to download, keep these in mind:
» If comments are available, read them and find out if the torrent is good
» Make sure the torrent health status beside the filename is green (or high)
» If you want good quality videos, choose those with HDTV in their filenames
» Choose torrents with more peers and seeds than leeches
After you’ve downloaded your torrent file, open it in your BitTorrent client and it will start to download. Here’s a good time to be patient. Click here for tips on how to make downloads faster in uTorrent.
When you’re download has finally reached 100%, it’s time for you to open the file and check it if it really works.
To play icm.xvid files in RealPlayer, just download and install this.
For files ending in .rar, .r00, .r01, etc., you need WinRAR to extract them. Get the trial version here.
Well, I think that’s it. So, enjoy watching!

UPDATE:
There are fake torrents that have been going around lately. They ask for a password when you try to extract the files. In order to get the password, you are told to download a program. DO NOT DOWNLOAD ANYTHING. There is no password. The file is a fake. You can avoid these fake torrents by not downloading .rar files. If you have to download .rar files, make sure the torrent has a lot of .rar archives in its list of files and not just one. Also check if the torrent includes a sample folder. These are usually the ones that are not fake.

The first thing I thought was “TSUNAMI!”
Really.
The terrible hum of the winds whooshing and howling in every direction sounded like the sea was coming to get me. Plus the fact that I lived near Manila Bay made me think that maybe some daring wave thought of breaching its boundaries so it could get a taste of life on land.
I looked out the window half-expecting to see Manila covered in water and debris. And it was. Although it wasn’t tsunami-level.
Super typhoon Milenyo. Look on the bright side. At least, classes were cancelled.
I spent the next few minutes peeking out of windows and thinking “Whoa. I can hardly see anything!” or “This must be the strongest typhoon since I moved here” or “I’d better back off in case the glass breaks” and later, “Why is it hot in here?” Apparently, there was no electricity. Darn. So, I did what people normally do in times like this. Sleep.
At least, that’s what I wanted to do. But it’s a little hard to sleep like a log in this kind of weather, don’t you think?
There was something weird going on with my ears, too. Kind of like when landing and taking off in a plane or riding the elevator or going downhill in high altitudes. It’s like that. Must be air pressure or something.
It wasn’t easy looking for something to eat. Cooking wasn’t possible because we have an electric stove. We couldn’t go out to buy food. Taxis were scarce and I’m not a jeepney fan. And I bet we couldn’t call for a delivery, either. No choice. I’d have to make do with downstairs food. That’s food from downstairs. Choices are limited, there’s a shortage of rice and around me were people-sardines. But just as well, food is food.
Then there’s the electricity issue. Lucky ones recovered their power after a day (more or less). But there were the not-so-lucky ones who had to manage with candles, oil lamps and flashlights for almost 5 days. Tsk. Tsk. May liwanag ang buhay.
Traces of Milenyo’s visit could be found almost everywhere you look. I’ve spotted ripped signs, uprooted trees, wrecked rooftops and broken pavements. I actually saw Rizal Stadium’s roof waving at me.
But that’s not all. I’ve heard there’s another one coming. Neneng’s the name. Maybe it’s Milenyo’s sister, who knows? Anyway, hello Neneng. Please don’t pay us a visit. We don’t have any GI sheets and trees to give you. We only have glass and some organic matter. But even then, we’d prefer it if you had your stopovers at places where corrupt officials put their personal booty. Comprende?
I wonder if PLDT’s malfunction was related to the typhoon, too. Hmm.

Oh. And I’ve heard there’s a third one. You know what they say. Great typhoons come in threes.

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don’t believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn’t exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can’t imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but didn’t respond because he didn’t want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don’t exist because if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! That’s what happens when people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That’s the point! God, too, DOES exist! That’s what happens when people do not go to Him and don’t look to Him for help. That’s why there’s so much pain and suffering in the world."

I thought it would be interesting to share this little something I got with you.

Mabuhay si Manny! Mabuhay ang boksing! Nyahaha.