TV | Lost: The End

It's been a week since the last episode of Lost aired, but I'm still reeling from the impact of that awesome finale. After 6 long years, Lost ended its mostly superb run with an extended final episode that lasted two and a half hours, and certainly one of the most enthralling, heartbreaking, and finest moments seen on TV.

Promo poster for the final season of Lost;
Vincent the dog is at the very right end

I became a fan of Lost the moment I watched its Pilot episode back in 2004; it was very different from all other shows, and appeared to be a drama about survivors of a plane crash, on an island in the middle of nowhere. But as the castaways and the viewers like me found out over the course of six seasons, that island was no ordinary island.

Throughout the years, the viewers learned a lot about the survivors through flashbacks, but very little else about the mysterious island. There were plenty of wtf moments--mostly involving the Others, the Dharma Initiative, flash-forwards, and more recently, a sideways world, which was mind-blowingly revealed to be something else entirely. To sum it all up: it's been a very strange six years.

Among the Lost characters, my favorite was Vincent, the only dog in the cast, who figured prominently in the Pilot and most of Season 1. As the years went by and the castaways dwindled in number due to death, murder, rescue, time-travel, or what other weird event the island kept throwing at them, I just kept thinking that they better not kill off Vincent, or there'd be hell to pay.

While I was hoping that most of the mysteries surrounding the island would be answered, in the end, none of it mattered. I just realized that Lost is more about the personal journeys of the castaways, rather than the technical explanation of the scientific or mystical nature of the island itself. That final episode hammered the "journey" aspect in a unique way, as we got to see the final fate of the characters we've come to know so well.

All told, Lost's final episode was a fitting end to the series; it might not be the ending that many had hoped for, but it was good enough for me. And Vincent? As he appeared right next to Jack in the very first episode, so did he appear at the very end, and once again next to Jack--in a brilliant method of depicting closure, the final scene mirrors the opening scene in Season 1, but in reverse.

Goodbye, Lost--I'll really miss you. Thanks for a great 6 years...namaste.

Gaming | 30th Anniversary of Pac-Man

It's hard to believe that Pac-Man, that little yellow dot chomper, was released more than 30 years ago. Created by Namco of Japan, Pac-Man changed the face of videogaming with its simple yet highly addictive gameplay, transforming millions of people into casual gamers everywhere.

I can fondly remember the time when Pac-Man ruled the arcades during the 1980's--every Pac-Man machine, whether it's an upright cabinet or a two-player tabletop deck, was being used. Even people who weren't fond of videogaming like my sister and cousins were lured to the arcades just to play Pac-Man. I probably spent hundreds of coins playing the game, and enjoying every minute of it.


To celebrate Pac-Man's anniversary, Google turned its logo into a playable Pac-Man game for the weekend of May 21--pressing the "Insert Coin" button started the game, and soon that highly familiar wocka-wocka-wocka sound would start as the iconic Pac-Man started chomping the dots while traversing the maze, all the time avoiding Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde.

The maze layout was slightly altered to conform with Google's logo, but everything's here--power dots, fruits, sound effects, intermissions, and all. They even included Ms. Pac-Man as a two-player option--she appears when "Insert Coin" is pressed twice. Needless to say, I was thrilled, as playing the game brought back a lot of happy memories.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who spent time on Google's Pac-Man page, as evidenced by the stories being reported around the Net about lots of wasted office hours while playing the special Pac-Man tribute page. I found this hilarious, because gaming nowadays seem to be all flash and no substance, with a majority of gamers being graphic whores who don't care about gameplay anymore, only the way it looks. And yet, people still managed to play Pac-Man, disrupting office productivity in the process, LOL.

Google's version eventually became so popular that they decided to archive it on a permanent page, where everyone can play it anytime. Thanks, Google! And Happy Birthday to you, Pac-Man!

U.P. - Ayala TechnoHub

I've been curious about the U.P.-Ayala TechnoHub ever since I read about it last year, so one Sunday morning my friend Ivy and I set out for this place that's located along Commonwealth Avenue, just across the western edge of the main U.P. Diliman campus area.

A joint project between the University of the Philippines and Ayala Land, the area is a large mixed-use development community with mostly business and retail spaces. The offices located here are primarily information technology-oriented, like IBM and HSBC, with some business process outsourcing companies (BPO's).

The TechnoHub commercial area viewed from the main front entrance

One of the distinctive structures marking the entrance to the TechnoHub commercial area

A closer look at the fountains clustered in the center area

The TechnoHub's commercial area, which was really the main reason we went there, is an open plaza type of space with 2 levels of shops and dining establishments. It reminded me of the Serendra Piazza at Fort Bonifacio, complete with the same light spheres set on the floor, LOL. It wasn't that much of a surprise though, considering that both the TechnoHub and Serendra are owned by Ayala Land.

Inside The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, looking out through the front entrance

The spacious and nicely done back area of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

The back entrance of The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf

Many good eating places can be found here, including familiar franchises like Starbucks and The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. The Coffee Bean's interior at the TechnoHub is probably their most spacious and best-looking branch yet, and most of the other eateries have tables set up outside along their front and back areas, which also provided a nice view of the business centers and a lagoon flowing through the park.

The back entranceway to the leftside restaurants, which leads to the parking area

One of the areas fronting the lagoon, with the other TechnoHub buildings beyond it

Despite the TechnoHub's remote location, we noticed that it can get quite crowded during lunch hour, with people swarming all over the place. One disadvantage of the TechnoHub, just like Serendra and open-type retail spaces like these as opposed to a mall was that it can get quite hot during the day, despite the surrounding greenery and many fountains set in the central area. The fountains looked really cool and refreshing, and it took a lot of willpower to keep me from walking right through one of them, hehe.

Music | Edward Khil - Trololo

Ah, Internet memes--they have a way of sneaking up on you and grabbing your attention, no matter if it's good or bad. Case in point, the Trololo video, one of the latest videos to go viral, and quite possibly a contender for the next RickRoll, with numerous mentions on many sites and media sources.



The Trololo video is a 1976 variety show performance by acclaimed and multi-awarded Russian baritone singer Eduard Khil, and is actually titled I am Very Glad that I am Finally Returning Home. According to a recent interview of Khil, the composer, Arkady Ostrovsky, couldn't publish the original lyrics at the time, so it was decided to just turn the song into a vocalization, which was a form of scat singing.

I LOL'd the first time I saw this, but after the song had drilled itself into my mind and after I learned of its back story, I have to admit that I actually like the song, heh. The lush orchestration was a way of making up for the lack of lyrics, and it was very nicely done indeed--it felt like one of those jazzy, retro lounge music during the late 50's-early 60's. Who knew that Russian singers were hip during that time? My Dad would've loved this.

Film | The Losers

I wasn't really expecting much when I watched The Losers, but the trailer seemed okay, and it's an adaptation of a comic book series just like Kick-Ass and Wanted, so might as well try it out. Turns out that the movie version is a lot of fun, and was worth watching on the big screen.

Based on the Vertigo comic book series by Andy Diggle, The Losers features a Special Forces team that's betrayed on one of their missions, and depicts how they get their payback. There are tons of explosions and scenes of mass destruction, all woven in a fast-paced story laced with fine performances all around.

Part of The Losers success is the ensemble cast, which includes Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Chris Evans, and the sexy Zoe Saldana from Avatar and Star Trek. The casting works well in the sense that they all mesh well and give the viewer an impression they're a close family unit that has been through a lot, and not just a bunch of random people brought together. They also manage to get in some good one-liners, with Evans getting the funniest bits that gels well with his character.

Like the already mentioned Kick-Ass and Wanted, The Losers also has its own unique visual style. I particularly liked the way the location names are displayed, and the superb end credits sequence pays homage to the comic book illustrations.

It's unfortunate that The Losers didn't do well at the box-office, but I was glad to catch it on its last week here. If anything else, this movie was more entertaining than the predictable Iron Man 2.

Election Day

Today is Election Day in the Philippines, where most of us go to the polls and vote some new public officials, then cross our fingers that they don't degenerate into greedy, corrupt bastards like the previous batch of politicians.

That's wishful thinking really, as I don't actually remember a time when we didn't have corrupt politicians--they're everywhere, with most of them even involving their families and next-of-kin to ensure that their entire corrupt family stay in office and remain there until they're dragged away kicking and screaming or hell freezes over, whichever comes first.

Hopefully, this election marks the beginning of change--but I'm not counting on it. Unlike the last elections, this one's a dreadful mess. We went to our local precinct, which was a public elementary school in our area, around 9:00am. I was anticipating some order like the last time, but I was terribly, terribly wrong...it took forever to locate our precinct, and the people at the Voter's Assistance Desk were a) nowhere to be found, or b) unable to give us the answers we needed --> take your pick, because any choice will give you the same answer: they're useless.

It turned out that they crammed 7 voting precincts in one tiny classroom in order to share one automated PCOS voting machine. Unlike the last election where they assigned one precinct per classroom, we now have 7 goddamn precincts sharing one classroom. The result: long, long lines everywhere, and not one happy face in sight. The heat and humidity made waiting inside those classrooms a hellish experience, and to make it worse, there were kids and babies inside the classrooms--what is this, a freaking day care center??? I was just waiting for some dogs and cats to show up. >_<

It's hilarious to think that they're touting these elections as the first "automated" elections ever, yet I saw people everywhere manually browsing through printed out voters lists with thousands of names not even in alphabetical order just to check their precincts. Some automation indeed--a single PC or laptop with a voters database would've made a huge difference.

On the other hand, the overhyped PCOS machines reminded me of PS3 slims, heh. I liked the new method of feeding your own ballot into the machine slot, and I actually found it cool when that "Congratulations! Your vote has been registered" message flashed on the LCD display. A smiley face would've been better though, LOL.

By the time I was done, it was close to 12:00 noon; it took me less than 2 minutes to actually choose my candidates and submit my ballot, but all that disorganization and lining up made the entire ordeal last for more than 2 hours. Bummer...and if this is a probable sign of things to come, we're all screwed.

Film | Iron Man 2

I recently watched the sequel to 2008's Iron Man with lowered expectations; this is a Marvel film after all, and they're best known for transforming their best-loved super-hero characters into pale imitations of their original selves on the big screen.

However, Anthony Stark can hardly be referred to as "best-loved"; for me, Tony has always been a self-serving asshole who uses people for his own ends. He managed to create a super-powered armored suit, but all that he really managed to do is turn himself into an asshole wearing a super-powered armored suit.

Iron Man 2 is much too bright, too flashy, and ultimately, too fake. All that CGI tended to get a bit tiresome, where we have not one, not two, but three Iron Men, and if you add the similar-looking drones, you end up with CGI overkill. The final battle made me feel like I was watching those CGI Transformers series, and those weren't even any good.

Robert Downey, Jr. continues his role as asswipe/industrialist Tony Stark, and he's in full OA mode here, which can get really annoying to the point that I was actually rooting for the villain. Speaking of villains, Mickey Rourke has such a bad-ass presence that you couldn't care less what he's mumbling about, you just want to get as far away as possible when you see him, LOL.

Scarlett Johansson's performance as the Black Widow (her character's costumed alter ego was never mentioned in the film, but yes, she's obviously the Black Widow) somehow fell flat, as her role appears to be a walk-on decorative ornament. Her fight scenes were a combination of bad choreography and posing, which totally sucked--the fight scenes of Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass were far superior, and more fun.

Simply put, Iron Man 2 was not that good, and not that great, just okay--which was fairly typical of a Marvel movie sequel gone to hell *coughcoughX-Men: The Last Standcoughcough* Unfortunately, we'll be seeing more of Downey and his overacting in the forthcoming Avengers and Avengers-related films slated for the next couple of years. Sigh.