Herbie

For the past few days, I've been seeing this car parked in front of one of the houses near our street--it's an excellent replica of Herbie, the sentient Volkswagen first featured in Walt Disney's The Love Bug movie.

Herbie parked near our street

Everything about the car matches, from the color to the stripes to the #53 decals. Herbie's lucky owner must be so proud of it, and with good reason, as it's a pretty darn near perfect copy of the original. I wanted to take a picture the first time I saw it, but I was too embarrassed since there were a lot of people near it at the time.

This morning as I headed for work was perfect; Herbie was parked outside as usual, and no one was around, so I discreetly snapped a photo as I was passing by. I was really fond of Herbie in the first Love Bug movie (I didn't care much for the other films that followed), so seeing this car really made my day.

Gizmos | Special Edition Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP

Out today in Japan is Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G for the PSP, which is an expansion to the popular Monster Hunter Portable 2nd game (known as Monster Hunter Freedom 2 elsewhere) by Capcom. The Monster Hunter series is hugely popular in Japan, which has sold more than a million copies since its release.

What's noteworthy about the G expansion though, is a Special Edition PSP that's bundled with the game, which comes in an all-new shade of bronze, and decorated with the Monster Hunter Guild Crests. This is probably the coolest-looking PSP yet, but it's unavailable outside of Japan, and you can't get it without the bundle.


Also included with this Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G PSP are a couple of pouches and a strap, all decorated in the unique, almost tribal-looking, Monster Hunter style.


The bronze PSP will be released later this April as a new addition to the official PSP colors, but without the Monster Hunter crests--which is just too bad since the crests make this PSP look awesome.

Music | Telepopmusik - Breathe

This song is one of my all-time favorites; it's an excellent chill out track by the French electronic music trio known as Telepopmusik. The song has a kind of lazy summer vibe to it, which is almost hypnotic and trance-like, with sparse lyrics consisting only of a couple of phrases repeated over and over: "Another day...just breathe...I'm used to it by now..." That phrase has become something of a mantra for me these past few weeks, as it really helps to relieve stress, and the song itself is just so relaxing to listen to.

Breathe was originally released in 2001, but the song became a hit in North America two years later, when Mitsubishi used it in a commercial to launch their Outlander vehicle in 2003. Several mixes were released, but none could compare to the radio edit that was featured in the original video.



The video for Breathe is a bit strange--the place looks like some retro pool resort, and features one of the creepiest-looking little girls I've ever seen. Generally, the video isn't really that good, but it's not that bad either, so just ignore the video, focus on the music, ...and breathe.

Visita Iglesia

A Visita Iglesia is a Lenten tradition that translates as "Church Visit", and that's exactly what goes on during a Maundy Thursday night for many Catholics here. I had never experienced one before, so last night I tagged along with with my sister Ella, niece Maia, and cousin Yelane went they went on their annual Visita Iglesia.

There's a debate on exactly how many churches you're supposed to visit on a Visita Iglesia--some say 7, some say 14, but the general consensus is that you should visit more than one in a single night. We agreed on 7, so we set off around 8:00pm, with our first stop the nearest, which was the church near our home, the Sacred Heart Parish.

Approaching the church, I was surprised at the traffic, as cars seemed to be everywhere, and lots of people were walking around. There were lots more people inside, and most were either praying before the Altar of Repose or reciting the Stations of the Cross prayers as they moved from station to station, which was another Lenten tradition.

Inside the Sacred Heart Parish, located near the Kamuning area

Sacred Heart Parish was the church where I was baptized as a baby, and while my religion is Roman Catholic and went to Catholic schools, I was never an avid church-goer, and I rarely go to Mass. LOL, I can't even remember the last time I set foot in Sacred Heart Parish, but it looked exactly the same as ever, except the altar was well-lighted this time.

After a few minutes, off we went to the 2nd church in our list, the Christ the King Church along E. Rodriguez. Or so we thought, as the slow-moving traffic in front of the church made it next to impossible to enter the area. We had to skip it and went instead to the Sto. Nino de Violago Chapel beside Walter Mart, located further along E. Rodriguez. The chapel was small, but it had a really nice altar that appeared to be entirely covered in gold or bronze panels, making it look like a stage.

Our 3rd church was Mt. Carmel, which was bursting with people; I even saw one woman cradling a dog inside, which I mistook to be a badly-dressed baby, hehe. The Mt. Carmel altar was dark and unlit, maybe because they concentrated all the light on the brightly-lit Altar of Repose next to it.

We were supposed to head next for the St. John the Baptist Parish at Pinaglabanan, San Juan, but the traffic was even worse with the narrow streets, so all we did was pass by the church and headed instead for the chapel at Cardinal Santos Memorial Hospital along Wilson St. in Greenhills.

The chapel at Cardinal Santos was small, but what caught my eye was their Altar of Repose, which was set up just outside in what looked like a small zen garden, surrounded by plants and white stones--all that was missing was a waterfall. It was actually very relaxing to look at, and the altar itself rested on a pedestal that reminded me of the Incan treasure in Raiders of the Lost Ark, hehe.

Since it was located inside a hospital, I didn't expect people to visit the place, but surprise, surprise, lots of people were there as well--people really do go on Visita Iglesia in the city, LOL.

Next stop was only a few blocks away, the Santuario De San Jose in Greenhills. We had to park outside a side street and walked about a block to the church, since the area was filled with cars. The church was filled with people as well, but it was hot--the church had centralized airconditioning, but it wasn't on, and there was no adequate ventilation.

Leaving the Greenhills area, we headed for Camp Aguinaldo, a huge military base along EDSA that was just across another military base, Camp Crame. Inside the Camp, we went to the most prominent Catholic Church there, the St. Ignatius Cathedral. It was my first time to visit the place, and it was nice and cool--finally, some needed airconditioning!

However, their Altar of Repose made me gasp, because I was kidding previously that the Altar of Repose at Cardinal Santos needed a waterfall, and here at St. Ignatius, the altar actually had one, LOL! It looked like a small grotto propped against the wall, set with stones and water could be clearly seen flowing from the top to the bottom.

As we left the Camp Aguinaldo area, I found it strange that the camp was extremely dark--there were lots of street lights, but they weren't turned on. Maybe they were conserving electricity, or maybe it was just routine military protocol, like a curfew?

Our 7th and last church to visit was the Christ the King Parish at Valle Verde. A long, long line of parked cars surrounded the street beside it, so we parked along the nearest empty slot and had to walk a couple of blocks to the church. As usual, lots of people were there, and it was hot inside--the church had a circular layout that was designed for lots of cross ventilation, but tonight the aircons were all off and only a couple of doors were open, so there was hardly any ventilation at all.

The entrance to the Christ the King Parish at Valle Verde

We were all done by 10:30pm, so we went to Metrowalk and met up with my cousin Hywel and her husband Copa for a late night "snack." Along the way, we saw many people walking with backpacks towards the Antipolo area--I was told that they were on an annual pilgrimage of sorts, a panata or promise to walk all the way to Antipolo during Holy Week.

Arriving at Metrowalk, the Starbucks there was a disappointment, as it was already closed, so I had to settle for some Shawarma at Behrouz Persian Cuisine. It was past midnight when we all headed home, but not before stopping by the Starbucks along E. Rodriguez to buy some desserts and drinks to go, which included their newest offering, a Panna Cotta dessert that was really good.

Gizmos | The D/A Clock

This is probably one of the most elegant and minimalist clocks I've ever seen. Created by Alvin Aronson, a Design student from the Rhode Island School of Design, the D/A Clock is a stark white timepiece that displays huge LCD characters with elements that slowly slide in and out of the white surface as it marks the time.

The D/A Clock

Alvin used materials such as wood and Corian (a type of acrylic polymer/plastic primarily used for countertops) to build his unique clock, which brilliantly plays on the digital to analog concept by having the display of the digital characters controlled by an analog mechanism as it gradually marks the time.

In his own words, Alvin states that "the D/A Clock introduces new characteristics to the digital mediation of time: a physical dimension and intermediate states--the time between 0 and 1." Indeed.



Currently, the D/A Clock is one-of-a-kind, but will most probably be marketed later on. I'm just dreading the inevitable flood of rip-offs and inferior copies that could appear anytime soon...

Pokemon | Mini-Car Candy Toys

Japanese mini toy maker Subarudo recently released a set of Pokemon Mini-Car Candy Toys. The complete set consists of four cars: Pikachu, Piplup, Chimchar, and Turtwig Mini-Cars, which are individually packed in boxes with those sweet/sour candy tablets that seem to be popular in Japan.

from left to right: the Pikachu, Piplup, Chimchar, and Turtwig Mini-Car Candy Toys; you can see their boxes behind them

The cars are smaller scale plastic reproductions of the bigger die-cast Pokemon Mini-Cars that were released by Tomica, and are perfect in every detail, with slightly lighter-colored windows. Hmmm...now why would a mini toy maker come out with exact copies of previously released die-cast cars? It's just logical though, since Subarudo and Tomica are both owned by one company, Takara Tomy.

Comparing the sizes of the Tomica die-cast Chimchar car (left) and the Chimchar Candy Toy car (right)

I asked a friend of mine to get me at least one of the cars when he and his wife went to Hong Kong several weeks ago; he sent me an SMS that he couldn't get any, then later surprised me by giving me the entire set! That really made my day--thanks, Andy! hehe

Gizmos | Mint Green PSP

Sony's handheld system, the PlayStation Portable (PSP), has added yet another color to its roster of official hardware colors. This time the new PSPs come in Mint Green, and is currently a Japan-only exclusive color.


The new Mint Green color follows the earlier light and icy shades of Silver, Pink, Blue, and Purple. It's so light, you could hardly see the green tint at all--in fact, the box has even more green than the PSP.

Even though I don't really like it that much, Sony must've done something right, as recent sales figures in Japan show that PSP sales were up the week that the Mint Green PSP was released, topping both DS Lite and Wii sales. I guess bringing out new colors does make a difference.