thebigbadlonewolf

it's good for those who want or need to quit for whatever reason.... but methinks this is one club that i will never qualify for.

that, and the "I Quit Singing and Having Sex" club. heheh.

so...to the triple treat of Wine, Women and Song......BOTTOMS UP! ***glug glug glug*** :upside:

Er, lumipat na sila, can't remember the name of the building, but it's the back of Makati med.

 

But try it's sister bar, Chakik's, at City golf Plaza, Julia Vargas Ave., (in front of the gate of Valle Verde III). Tropical Depression plays there Saturdays, Scarlett on Fridays, other entertainers on other days.

heyyy....Chakik's sounds interesting. Any info on beer prices and food (prices and serving sizes)? Parking? Cover charges if any? Crowd? Other info?

Thanks dudes...ROCK ON! :goatee:

Clubber's Guide in Morato

New club (actually new branch), great sound system and good song selection (predominantly R&B/Hiphop mixes):

http://manilatonight.com/index.php?s=&...t&p=4316918

We usually find a place to sober up and chow down on dimsum and noodles (North Park, Next Door or HapChang), or wolf down some meat (Vivian's Tapsi, Burger Machine or Goodah), sip hot coffee (Starbucks etc) or else just get a cool Gatorade and a hotdog/sandwich from the nearest 7-11 or Mini Stop.

After partying near the east, Padi's Point Antipolo is a good place to hang out and wait for the sunrise. Just be careful on the drive up, you might run into some fellow inebriated drivers who are on their way down.

Not Your Usual Bedtime Story:

My Take on Pan's Labyrinth

(Reposted from my blog)

* * * * W A R N I N G : S P O I L E R S F O L L O W * * * *

You know the story about Little Red Riding Hood, right? Yeah, you probably do. But the version you most probably recall is the post-Perrault, SANITIZED, GRIMM-ified, Disney-fied, watered-down, "happily ever after" version.

Interestingly, the other ORIGI NAL Red Riding Hood story was a bit more sinister.

As you can see, it involved real MURDER and DISMEMBERMENT(the wolf kills granny, pours her blood into a bottle and slices her flesh onto a plate), CANNIBALISM (the wolf tricks Red into eating and drinking her grandma's flesh and blood unwittingly), and a LESS-THAN-HAPPY ENDING(no woodsman to save the day; both granny and Red end up as the wolf's dinner). Not your usual bedtime story.

PAN'S LABYRINTH definitely fits the latter description.

Expecting a "Harry Potteresque" experience? Don't. Less than twenty minutes into the flick, you are already treated to a scene of the Captain (the main "villain") going ballistic on a suspected rebel's face, beating it to a bloody pulp with his gun. No sanitized camera work here either; you could actually SEE the beating and blood spurting all over.

Eventually, one gets used to all the violence. You see people getting shot in the HEAD at close range, the first stroke of a saw amputating a leg, TORTURE scenes, stabbing scenes, FACE-CARVING scenes, the actual NEEDLEWORK of the captain repairing his face from the face carving, and other gruesome little tidbits that actually made me flinch and bite my lip at some points.

But since I have already been de-sensitized to gore (aside from "300",i recently became a DC VERTIGO Graphic Novel fan), I was able to look past the disturbing scenes and appreciate the story.

It was actually one of those pretty interesting juxtapositions of the real world with the faerie realm. In the "real" world, Ofelia- the main protagonist- is an ordinary little girl who was -along with her pregnant mother - adopted by a sadistic captain of the Spanish army during Franco's time. In the "faerie" world however, Ofelia is really a princess who escaped to the mortal world, got her memories wiped out, and who was now being wooed by a faun (or "PAN") to return to her REAL FATHER in the faerie world.

To do this, Ofelia had to do a series of interconnected "quests" which involved: killing a giant toad to retrieve the golden key which unlocks a small nook which contains a golden dagger which could be used to sacrifice an innocent person's blood that will ultimately open up a magical portal so that Ofelia can return to the faerie world. WHEW!

In the end, the innocent blood donor would turn out to be Ofelia's brother, which of course she does not agree to, which leads to her death (SHOT in the tummy by the sadistic Captain). Ironically, her death is the FINAL part of the quest, sacrificing her own life and blood opened up the magical portal anyway, so in the end, she was ultimately reunited with her dad and mom in the faerie world.

Yup, there's a moral to the story after all, kids.

Although if you get your logical brain to think about it...it's still a tragedy. In the real world, the kid still dies bleeding in the end. Who knows if the faerie world was real or if the kid just imagined it at her moment of death? I mean, she was a fan of fairy tales after all, so she could have just been suffering from schizophrenic delusions brought about by her stressful situation and her need to "escape". I guess you can choose whether it was a happy ending or not, depending on your disposition (and faith in the realm of the faerie). Me? I believe.... I choose to believe.

Visually, i found the treatment literally too dark at some points (i don't know if they purposely did that, or it was the projector or film).

I liked the scene change treatment - slow panning, then when the camera hits a tree or some other large object close up it seamlessly morphs into another scene (it's like the graphic novel equivalent of "meanwhile..."). It was overdone JUST A LITTLE BIT, but it was forgivable. Certainly much better than those original "star wars" transitions.

The Music was haunting in parts, and set the mood perfectly; I was humming the lullabye theme all the way to my car.

The CG and costumes were great! The Faun-with his milky slanted eyes and grotesque appearance was really creepy...and his voice reinforced his creepiness. You did not know if he was a friend or a trickster til the very final scene.

But the creepiest character in the movie (aside from the sadistic Captain) was the PALE MAN. Dude, this is the stuff my NIGHTMARES are made of. The Pale man is a child-eating monster who only comes to life when kids give in to temptation and partake of the sumptuous banquet at his table.

His eyes lie motionless on a plate in front of him; once he is awakened, he grabs his eyeballs and stuffs them into crevices (sockets?) in his hands. yeaarraarrrgh. The monster actually killed two fairies by CHOMPING THEIR FRICKIN' HEADS OFF. Can you imagine that in a Disney flick? *shudder*.

Pretty hair-raising stuff...but the chase scene was one of the most exciting parts in the movie (of course, our heroine and one fairy escape unscathed).

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...before you trot off to see it, please be informed that the whole film's dialogue....is in SPANISH. At first, I thought that the subtitles were just a prelude to lend authenticity and would subsequently transition into English when they cut to the faerie world...but alas, the subtitles were there forever. But then again, once you get over all the "hola's", "entonses", and "hijo de p#ta's", you get engrossed in the film and just forget that it is dubbed in a foreign tongue.

Hey....come to think of it, I think that I actually ENJOYED it more because I love to read, and I was not swayed by the nuances and inflections the actors/directors would have done had it been in English. In short, I was making my own dialogue in my head, aided by the visuals and the sounds...making it more EMOTIONAL due to my "internal" dialogue. Hmmm...maybe I should start watching my DVD's in foreign languages too! (...but then, that's just me. I actually noticed several groups of people leave after twenty minutes...I guess they got tired of waiting for the English to kick in, haha)

Overall, very highly recommended if you (1) are mature enough, (2) appreciate a good story even if it's not "cutesy wutesy" sanitized, and (3) would not mind reading English subtitles for two hours.

But please....leave the kids at home.

-tbbLONEWOLF

P.S. I just did a search for movie stills now, and I found out that this movie actually won several Oscars...Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup). Well deserved IMHO!

Official Site is at www.panslabyrinth.com

Air your thoughts here.

P.P.S. btw, this is how the original Red Riding Hood tale ends.

Big Bad Wolves are the SHIZNIT, yo! ;->

The Batanes Islands

Full Set

heya enkateam and jacques,

thanks for the info....great to have fitness / nutrition experts in the house!

will definitely try your suggestions and see how it goes.

cheers!

heya guys,

assuming that one has already started to put one's diet in check....

1) how long do i have to maintain the diet before i start taking supplements?

2) what SPECIFIC supplements do you suggest i start with, and at what dosage? i've never taken anything before except for multivitamins and ascorbic acid. (after backreading a bit, i started to get interested in whey, but am not too sure if it's apt for "supplement virgins" like me)

body type: endomorph. i've already built a wee bit of muscle mass but i'm having trouble letting it "show through".

goal: 1) weight/ fat loss, 2) definition

thanks!

Mag Exercise Tayo Tuwing Umaga

by: Yoyoy Villame

(dr. evil voice:) rrrrrrrigggggggght.

....sometimes the simplest questions have the simplest answers! haha

hola masters,

tried HIIT last saturday on the treadmill (5mins warmup, 30secs fullblast, 30secs recovery for 15 mins at just a steady 2%incline)...i was still able to do a full upper body routine after that.... but man, i was really sore the following day (missed two workout days because of it).

tried it again just now on the reclined bike (5mins warmup, 1min fullblast, 1min recovery for 15 mins; i increased resistance 3 points every cycle), it was more "manageable" in the sense that my legs do not ache as much. after that i rushed through another half-body workout (this time, just two sets each, because it was already closing time).

will probably try it again on the spinner tomorrow evening.

this is fantastic because i cut my cardio time in half but still end up sweating buckets and out of breath!

would just like to get your feedback regarding the following:

(1) which machine/routine is the most effective? or are they all the same? goal: want to trim down for the summer beach season.

(2) is the routine i am using ok or can i still improve it?

(3) i read somewhere that you should use HIIT (a) every other day and ( only on days when you are not doing weights or anything else, but i find that i still have enough energy to do at least a half body workout. If I keep doing HIIT everytime i workout (i.e., make it my regular warmup/cardio routine), will it be detrimental in the long run?

thanks!

hey thanks for mentioning HIIT. only heard about it now, will give it a go.

any tips on resistance settings on the bike and incline settings on the treadmill when doing HIIT? (i.e.,is it ideal to keep them at flat /zero, or could we jack them up?)

AlopeciA

XanadU

"In The End" - Linkin Park

I've tried so hard

and got so far

but in the end

it doesn't even matter

I had to fall

to lose it all

but in the end

it doesn't even matter....

Architectural Board Exam, Engineering Portion:

There was a MAJOR question about SOIL MECHANICS (something that is not part of our usual design services) that we never ever EVER studied, during classes or review classes. At ALL!

That one question kinda stressed me out, and threw me off-kilter for the rest of the exam.

I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it, but I somehow pulled myself together towards the end and was able to logically answer the question using other formulas we studied for structural engineering....it felt like i was pulling answers out of my butt. "bawi na lang ako sa design portion", i told myself.

(i was especially irked when I looked for the answer when I got home....it was one short little formula. I remember screaming in frustration).

that made it a very, verrrrrrry long wait for the results.....but i literally jumped for joy when i got 'em! woohooo! :upside:

i love kissing....that's a major turn-on for me. but i always respect the girl and watch for signals (yeah, it's 2007 BUT some girls still have conservative pinoy blood coursing through their veins).

i personally don't think that the girl is "easy" or a "ho" if she kisses or makes out (or even sleeps with you) on the first date; it just means that times have changed, and people today are more comfortable with their sexuality DESPITE the traditional gender roles imposed by a conservative society.

bottom line is...you BOTH have to want to do it. you wouldn't want an unwanted tongue running down your gullet now, would you?

:* :* :*

SolipsisM

Ron Nathan (Mr. Bearbull)

His opening puns and jokes are sometimes corny but it made me snicker in public once or twice.

Saab

ArchaiC

what's the name of the instructor? what branch? maybe i can get playlists from them.

 

from what i know, a lot of instructors share music with each other, so their playlists may be the same.

 

instructors use the following music in cycling classes:

 

1. trance/techno (very similar to les mills rpm music) - try searching for ministry of sound compilations, these are non stop techno compilations. there are a lot of good upbeat tunes in these cds to keep you going for hours.

2. retro style - 80's and 90's songs (some instructors use techno remixes of these songs for more upbeat feel)

3. opm - some instructors in abscbn use gary v, and last year even the orange & lemons song.

forgot the name bro, but this was in metro east. big bald guy.

yeah, it sorta sounds like MOS....but the tunes weren't really familiar ( i have a lot of MOS compilations too), and it was mixed in such a way that it goes with the "simulated terrain" (i.e., a bit relaxed at first for warmup, then keeps going faster and faster, then slows down). it even has little "trance breaks(?)" in between where you can catch your breath for around 8-16 beats, then it goes thumping on again. really gets your blood pumping.

anyway, he said that different instructors use different soundtracks, but if your instructor friends/acquaintances could share their specific playlists, that would be great. looking forward to your info.

hmmm....would love to try spinning to a pure OPM-mix soundtrack...sounds interesting!

Was able to attend a class last week; they've changed the name from "Cosmic Cycling" to just plain "CYCLING". They've discontinued the old Cosmic Cycling class because its "maarte" moves apparently increase the risk of lower back injury (at least that's what the instructor told me).

The new "Cycling" is pretty similar to RPM, just pedal, sit stand, lean, and weight-shift...more emphasis is given to resistance. (THREE! CLICKS! UP! arrgh. )

I like the soundtrack the instructor used; it was a megamix of some sort (not from les mills) with almost no gaps between songs. I tried to ask him the title(s), but he just said "marami eh". hmmm....

it kinda sounds like the music they play in decades, but with a faster tempo. so if anybody knows of any (friendlier) instructors who would care to share info re: their playlists/mixes....the floor is yours. :upside:

Quicktime

KetosiS

RambunctiouS