Lost in Marikina

Every time All Saints Day approaches, my sister, Mom and I visit my Dad's grave at Loyola Memorial Park in Marikina. Going to the cemetery in this country on November 1 is a stress-inducing nightmare that involves traffic, crowds, and chaos, so we usually try to avoid this madness by going at least several days early.

Eduardo Castrillo's The Redemption in Loyola Memorial Park, Marikina,
featuring huge sculptures of welded brass depicting The Last Supper

Earlier today, we set out just around 10:00am and headed for Marikina. For the past few years now, traffic to the cemetery is usually rerouted, going past the main entrance and through a side gate. The main entrance becomes the exit point, and routes going back to Quezon City pass through the Riverside Mall.

This year was different though--someone had the bright idea to turn the entire highway leading to the cemetery into a one way lane only, so upon leaving Loyola Memorial Park, we had no choice but to turn left, and further into Marikina. Now if you're going to reroute a major thoroughfare, there should at least be huge signs pointing to exits going to other routes, right? There weren't any, and we spent about an hour wandering aimlessly and not knowing where the hell we were going.

We stopped to ask directions from some MMDA people standing near a curb, and they did point us through the correct way, but when my sister asked them who was supposed to be putting up signs, they said it wasn't their responsibility, it was the city of Marikina who should've done that. Wow, I'm so impressed with the way government agencies coordinate with each other here, I could cry. What a load of bullcrap--did no one really think about putting up signs to exits when they planned this entire rerouting operation? Shit.

While we were on our unintended tour of Marikina, at one point we almost ran into a couple of cars going the wrong way on a one way street. Obviously we weren't the only ones who were lost. We had to ask directions from some residents one more time, and this time we ended up on a familiar roadway leading to Quezon City at long last.

I have to give Marikina and its residents some credit though; the streets we passed through were immaculately clean, with no litter whatsoever. On one street I actually saw a resident pick up some trash off the road and place it into a dustbin. But changing the previous rerouting plans without providing adequate signage is sheer stupidity. Why did they even bother to change the old rerouting plan, what was wrong with it in the first place? If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and those responsible for this reroute score a massive fail.

Gizmos | Special Edition Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP

Japan really loves Monster Hunter. The game series that started on the PlayStation 2 has become legendary on the PSP, selling gazillions of copies and spawning other spin-off games that were released on the Wii and Xbox 360, including a PC MMORPG.


Realizing a cash cow when they see one, Capcom will be releasing yet another Monster Hunter for the PSP this December 1, 2010. And just like the previous game that had its own Special Edition PSP, this new game will also have a unique PSP.

The Special Edition Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP is a mostly black with gold trim PSP-3000. Aside from the monster brands adorning the unit, the things that make this PSP stand out from all the other PSPs are some hardware differences: The analog nub has a depression on it, making it easy to grip with your thumb; the speaker holes have been modified to look like Felyne footprints; and the back has an Extended Battery Pack installed, causing it to bulge slightly than usual.

Like the upcoming game, this PSP will be out in Japan on December 1, and will be sold separately, not part of a game bundle. No plans have been announced to bring this Special Edition Monster Hunter Portable 3rd PSP to other regions, I guess because the Monster Hunter series isn't really that big outside of Japan. Which is a crying shame, because this Special Edition PSP is probably one of the coolest PSPs I've ever seen.

Design | Gap Logo

Sometime last week Gap, the well-known clothing retailer, unveiled a new logo, stating that it was time for a change. They probably didn't expect the backlash that followed, in which many asked, "what the hell was wrong with the old logo?"


The old logo was just a blue box with uppercase elongated white letters that spelled out the name and literally having gaps between them. The new one used a bold Helvetica black typeface in uppercase and lowercase, with the blue box reduced and superimposed on the top right corner of the letter p.

My initial reaction was "wtf???" It didn't make sense, and was so jarring compared to the old logo that my mind immediately associated it with the word "ugly." Apparently I wasn't the only one; reactions to the new logo were mostly negative--people hated it outright, prompting Gap to launch a Facebook page where they invited others to create their own logos--crowdsourcing, they called it.

It was a big mistake, as the designs submitted only pointed out all the more why the old logo was classic and superior in every way. The old logo was stylish no matter how you viewed it; the new logo, while more contemporary, just did not fit well with the product and brand image. It was like the ugly Nickelodeon redesign, except this time the complaints were louder.

Helvetica is a favorite typeface of mine--I use it frequently in design projects and in this blog's main title header--but it's not always suitable in some cases. Looking at the Gap website with the new logo, it resembled a JCPenney site, with JCPenney being the best example of a logo using Helvetica. However, unlike Gap's new logo, JCPenney wears the font rather well, and besides, they were first.

After one week, Gap announced that they were reverting to the old, iconic blue logo, admitting their mistake in handling the change. The firestorm eventually subsided, and the new logo will go down in history as one of the biggest logo design fails.

Pokemon | HORI Pikachu DSi Charge Stand

Hori, that ever reliable maker of excellent 3rd party accessories for Sony & Nintendo consoles, has done it again. This time, they've made a charger for Nintendo DSis...in the form of a Pikachu.


The Pikachu DSi Charge Stand has the world's most famous Pokemon seated in front of a Pokeball. Just place the DSi on the top of the Pokeball to activate the charging process, and that's it...too bad its cheeks don't light up or anything.


Pikachu looks really adorable here though, and they couldn't have picked a more appropriate Pokemon to charge your DSi; somehow I can't imagine a Voltorb or Elekid having the same appeal, heh. Released in Japan just last September, the Pikachu DSi Charge Stand will be available at Amazon.com this December for $40, which is approximately P1,744.00--yikes!

While the charger will work for DSi LL (XL) models as well, older DS Lites and DS phats aren't compatible with it, awww. Expensive, but I want it just the same, even though I don't have a DSi...yet.

McDonald's Happy Meal Sasuke Toy

Aside from their burgers, McDonald's is well known for their Happy Meals, and the toys that you can get from them. They've come out with lots of toys through the years, including some well-known franchises like Pokemon and Hello Kitty. Recently they came out with a Naruto set in Taiwan and Japan, and one toy in particular from that set went on to become some kind of national craze, particularly in Taiwan.

Said toy in question is the Sasuke toy. He's one of the supporting characters in Naruto, and the Happy Meal toy of him is supposed to flip over when you push his upper body forward, but it doesn't quite succeed. However, Sasuke has been discovered to do something else entirely--he can balance objects on his head.

The Sasuke toy balancing a Nintendo DS on its head

Balancing several cellphones...

a rice cooker...

From the various photographs posted, the Sasuke toy is quite adept in balancing all kinds of objects, like coins, mugs, swords, laptops, and more--even upside down. As more and more people discovered the toy's uncanny ability, people started flocking to McDonald's in droves just to get the toy, and it even made headline news in Taiwan.

an ASUS laptop...

a fishbowl...

even a hammer, upside down!

Quentin Lau has the full story on this unique toy over on his Daybreak's Bell blog, along with more photos. I don't really recall if that Naruto set has come out here yet, but if it ever does, I'm sure as hell going to get myself a Sasuke toy, LOL.


[Photos are from Quentin Lau's blog, gamme.com.tw, and from tarly110 of the Jorsindo Motor Club forum]

Gizmos | Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary DSi and DSi LL

Nintendo is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the Super Mario Bros. game this year with lots of Mario-themed releases, including two new Special Edition DSi and DSi LL models.

The Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary DSi and box

Since it's Mario we're talking about here, and his color of choice is red, the 2 new DSis are both red all over, the only difference being the top panel imprints. The DSi has Mario jumping over the camera, while the DSi LL has Toad, a Fire Flower, and a Power Star beside the camera.

The Super Mario Bros. 25th Anniversary DSi LL and box

As with previous other Special Edition DS versions, these DSis are seriously lacking in the creative department; it's like someone just took a marker and drew on the top of the DSi covers. The real collector's items here are the boxes, with the gold 25th Anniversary logo emblazoned on the front and those iconic, pixelated Super Mario characters strewn all over.

Both of these 25th Anniversary DSis will be out in Japan only on October 28, 2010. The DSi will be exclusively available at 7-11 outlets, while the DSi LL will be available everywhere else in Japan.

Music | Girls' Generation (SNSD) - Gee

Someone recently sent me a link to a YouTube video that featured a chiptune version of a song titled Gee, which I initially mistook to be from a videogame. Turns out I was dead, dead wrong.

As I found out from Kotaku, the song is actually from a Korean pop group called Girls' Generation, also known as SNSD (an acronym for the group's Korean name). SNSD is unusual in the sense that it's a group composed of not three, not six, but nine 20-year old girls, which is probably the most number of group members I've seen in a musical act.


Since I never listen to the radio anymore, I have no freaking idea what's going on in the music world, but bubblegum K-pop is really not my thing, particularly after having my hearing assaulted repeatedly by this extremely annoying song called Nobody by The Wonder Girls, another K-pop girl group that became a big thing here last year.

Thankfully, Gee doesn't sound as grating as Nobody, and I actually like it, maybe it's because I heard the 8-bit rendition first, or maybe it's because there are hardly any English lyrics at all. If anything else, the song's melody is quite catchy, and thanks to the chiptune version, has been drilled into my head for the last week or so, a perfect example of Last Song Syndrome (LSS).

The 8-bit chiptune version

The original video is actually pleasant to watch, and you can't really argue with seeing a bunch of pretty girls dancing in perfect rhythm. They all look alike though, and even after watching the video several hundred times I still can't tell them apart, heh.

Gee was a massive hit in South Korea in 2009, and spent 9 weeks at the number 1 spot there; which is a week at #1 for each girl member, LOL. SNSD was also tapped as endorsers by Nintendo of Korea, and was featured in a series of commercials for the Nintendo DSi...and that's the gaming connection right there, hehe.