dan brown week

Four bestsellers (aren't they all?) in one single week: two second-hand paperbacks and two ebooks. One author everybody knows.

Dan Brown.

You know who he is. The Da Vinci Code guy. The heretic, the anti-Christ, the malicious mind behind the faith-mocking tales.

I'm quite impressed by his work. It is a conspiracy buff's fantasy of weaving plots about real organizations like Opus Dei, USA'S National Reconaissance Office and NASA, even the United Nations, CERN, and the Swiss Guard of the Vatican.

I started with a 150-peso copy of Deception Point from BookSale at SM West Bridgeway.

I was surprised at first; Brown's writing style isn't that good. His plot structure seems suspicious--as if generic, and unoriginal. Yet Brown found courage and a helluva info regarding NASA, NRO, Space Frontier Foundation and the White House. And I mean a hell lot of information!

Written in as-a-matter-of-fact approach, I know there are loopholes in the scientific basis of Deception Point. But who cares? Everyone loves to read a good conspiracy. Nevertheless, Deception Point can be absurd that at some point it talked about extra-terrestrial life and inserting meteorites under ice shelves. That's how big time a hoax can be for Dan Brown. And I was shocked with the twist in the end of the novel. Not shocked like, "Gosh,it was him all along!" But shocked like, "Come on!"

And then I moved on to a downloaded ebook of Digital Fortress.

I was not prepared to discover that Dan Brown was a formulaic writer! He basically had the same structure with Deception Point! And the same shock that comes with the twist in the end! How can he get away with this? But Digital Fortress is a boo. I'm not even sure why I kept on reading. Maybe I'm just letting it rain because I already got wet.

Maybe because the background issue of the book is an issue that interests me. Information privacy. Email tracing, information security, password encyrption. That kind of stuff. I'm a geek and I am definitely pro-EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation); I believe in keeping some privacy on the internet.

However, I hated Digital Fortress. How stupid can the National Security Agency's Cryptology Department be? And duh, if you'll read it, you'll know what I mean. Stories like this make me despise the word -- Love. Eew. Hope that wil l discourage you enough and not make the same mistake I did by reading through Digital Fortress.

Now, Angels and Demons.

It's the talked-about prequel of The Da Vinci Code, the next Tom Hanks as Robert Langdon movie. And yes, my dear fellow bookworms, this guy Dan is surely a formulaic writer. You can almost predict the twists and exactly when they happen. Angels and Demons, though, is a good read. (Thanks GreyLib for the ebook).

It is surprisingly well-researched, although I know the antimatter concept is not that serious. CERN totally bashes Brown for the wrong science he presented in the novel. It's impossible to create antimatter bombs.

But the Vatican's maze of architecture and art, Church inside secrets and national security issues provide an exciting background for the fiction to take place. Brown's Vatican and Rome suddenly sprang up to life, and interests the reader to find pictures of the places he involves in the adventure, and for the richer readers, to go buy the ticket for the next plane to Italy.

The Papal election or the Conclave, an important event in the book and of course, in the real world, is also well-described that we can easily verify it as factual, witnessing what happened after Pope John Paul II's death. Matters of the Papal office are well-described that you swear what you're reading can be real.

What's not real is of course the big-time cinematic ending. "God!" That's all I can say. Ha! No pun intended. And to think that the novel's valediction includes humanity's renewed faith in the Catholic Church and the power of miracle... Not to mention Illuminati's nonexistence. So anti-orgasmic.

Lastly, The Da Vinci Code. The ever perpetual modern heresy.

Dan Brown should be burned at the stake. He's an Anti-Christ. Like a Priory of Sion Grand Master wearing nothing but an androgynous mask and leading an orgy. He's the draconian devil, the lame saint! Yeah right.

I liked The Da Vinci Code. I read it on paperback and can't stop turning the pages. It's an engrossing story, even though I already saw the movie and that I can recognize what exact lines are in the Hollywood adaptation.

Hey, I obviously will not make the mistake of arguing why the novel deserves praise and not condemnation. It's just one freakin' clever plot!

And as they say, it's just fiction! It's just a test of faith! It's not real!

Hello? Fiction or not, it will make you think. That's the point. It will make you question practices and doctrines passed on by tradition. It will challenge you, to what faith really is. Does that include religious zealotry? Talk about burning at the stake.

By the end of The Da Vinci Code, we already know how Dan Brown writes. Starts with a death, roll up a mystery, assign a sleuth, attempt to find who's responsible for the crime, and uncover the real big-deal conspiracy of all time. Glory for the conspiracy buffs!

Whew. Whatta week! And I'm blaming Dan Brown.

the lords shall be remembered

I don't skateboard simply because I have no interest in such a "sport". But why not watch a film about skateboarding?

So I did, and found out "Lords of Dogtown" is a film that anyone shouldn't miss. It is as revolutionary as its subject, which is the origin of the Z-Boys - the skateboarding punks that have become legends in what has become an art and a sport.

(L-R) Three good young actors as the legendary Z-Boys.
John Robinson as Stacy Peralta, Victor Rasuk as Tony Alva,
and Emile Hirsche as Jay Adams.

This film is so beautifully made you wouldn't mind if it justifies punk culture. By punk, I mean the 70's definition of it, not the pretentious punk culture that we have right now. (Blame it on Avril). This film is awesome: the semi-documentary narrative written by an original Z-Boy (Stacy Peralta)the rock n'roll soundtrack, the almost-authentic production design, and the adorable and well-cast actors, all sewn together perfectly by the infamous directing style of Catherine Hardwicke.

Hardwicke and Peralta are both Sundance winners for their previous works. Hardwicke directed the hardcore teenage drama "Thirteen", and Peralta directed the documentary "Dogtown and Z-Boys". Lords of Dogtown is actually just a dramatized version of it.

Victor Rasuk (from "Raising Victor Vargas") plays the role of skating legend Tony Alva. Alva himself supervised all the skate stunts in this film, giving it more authenticity. Emile Hirsche is Jay Adams, John Robinson (from "Elephant") is Stacy Peralta, and Heath Ledger is Skip Engblom.

Everyone is cast right. You can see the actors believing in the material, and the director capturing all the great acting with its hard-edged, gritty but honest plot.

The film is technically a melodrama, but it's a violently vivid story of a real revolution in the 70's, full of the nasty things like sex/drugs/alcohol/etc (What? Did I just say they're nasty?) that the melodrama might just be an afterthought.

You know what's strange? Even if I don't know much about skateboarding, I felt the nostalgia and passion of the Lords of Dogtown. That's how good the film is.

not another chick flick

Picture this. I was watching The Devil Wears Prada at 1 AM, alone, with PowerDVD without subtitles. I was listening through headphones so if you were around you wouldn't hear any words from the "chick flick" I was concentrating on. I know. That's a little bit funny. But funnier yet, I was laughing so hard by myself. The fact I was watching the film after midnight can't stop me from laughing so hard, especially at the part when Andy outwitted the Devil during the impossible Harry Potter manuscript search.

The movie is mainly comic, but in a classy way. It is a based on Lauren Weisberger's roman à clef and chick-lit novel of "a naive young woman in New York scoring a job as an assistant to one of the city's biggest magazine editors, the ruthless and cynical Miranda Priestly."

Miranda Priestly is the most beautiful and elegant form of evil ever seen in the movies. I couldn't see any other actress of Meryl Streep's caliber that could possibly pull a Miranda off, without being a total bitch and nothing else. Meryl Streep did not play Miranda a total bitch. She might have been a little, just a little, bitchy but it's mainly because she should be. She's supposedly a Boss from Hell. Her rudeness is in the form of creepy sacrasm, of catty compliments, and of impossible orders. But she's not the loud, cussing boss that you could have expected. She's a more sophisticated monster. She speaks in this whispery, almost soothing, almost hushed voice, but with terrible command and definite fatality.

Even her complaints don't sound like bitching. She expresses her disappointment in form of questions: "Why is it so hard to confirm an appointment?..." Why is it so difficult to get my car?..." And yes, she doesn't require answers to most of her questions.

Miranda always, ALWAYS, says "THAT'S ALL" as if you were doing small and simple errands. Irritating, but altogether amusing. Even adorable and of course, hilarious.

Which is the strongest hold for any viewer of this smart, sexy, sophisticated chick flick: Meryl's Streep performance is stellar, original and just plainly best. She deserves another Oscar and all the credit for the film. (Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt are in their best acts too, but sorry guys, it's Streep's solo today, maybe tomorrow night).

Anne Hathaway is not the best casting choice, but she was not a miscast either. She still has a long way to go, for acting the part and not just looking the part. Know what I mean? At least she's so over being a Disney girl (unlike Lindsay and Hillary). Anne Hathaway's Andy is a clumsy but later courageous character. I laughed at her awkwardness since the first phone call she answered as Runway editor-in-chief's junior assistant. "How do you spell Gabana?"

But the moment Andy steps in with her Chanel boots, and after that excellent montage with virtual wardrobe change, she transforms herself into a Runway girl. She starts getting into her work and in her boss's footsteps. Fortunately, she never did. She realized in the end she did not want to become Miranda. She walked away.
The Devil Wears Prada might or might not be a realistic portrayal of the industry, but I think it is a truthful presentation of the brutality and necessary rush of the fashion/advertising/glamour/glossy magazine business. Beauty is skin deep and expensive.

If you don't like chick flicks, or movies about skinny models and overpriced clothes (by the way, this is the most expensively costumed movie of all time), at least watch it because of Meryl Streep's version of the Devil. You will not be scared, but stunned. Beware of Hell on Heels.

bamboo revives 'tatsulok'

I don't know if most of us or our generation understand the word "LEFT" or "PROGRESSIVE" or related political ideologies...

But the upcoming album from the current No. 1 Pinoy band-BAMBOO- presents in its new songs lineup a classic hymn for the progressive-minded / leftist. - "Tatsulok" (originally by Buklod, who also wrote the classic "Kanlungan").

TATSULOK - is Tagalog for "triangle", symbolizes the Filipino class structure. The bottom of the pyramid represent the "masa"- the large chunk of the population which is overimposed by actions of the class on top of the pyramid (tuktok ng tatsulok) which of course represents the "elite" or the "rich few" who manipulate and exploit the poor.

Pardon my progressive tendencies, but what can I do? That class structure sucks and I think we can do something about it.
But sorry, I can't be extremely left-wing, I am not militant. I am at the LEFT OF THE CENTER.

So let me post the YouTube video (and lyrics, yehey!) of this great, moving song. Hope we find the message in it, and if we sing it, we mean every word! PADAYON! :-)



TATSULOK

Totoy bilisan mo, bilisan mo ang takbo
Ilagan ang mga bombang nakatutok sa ulo mo
Totoy tumalon ka, dumapa kung kailangan
At baka tamaan pa ng mga balang ligaw

Totoy makinig ka, wag kang magpa-gabi
Baka mapagkamalan ka’t humandusay dyan sa tabi
Totoy alam mo ba kung ano ang puno’t dulo
Ng di matapos-tapos na kaguluhang ito

[Refrain]
Hindi pula’t dilaw tunay na magkalaban
Ang kulay at tatak ay di syang dahilan
Hangga’t marami ang lugmok sa kahirapan
At ang hustisya ay para lang sa mayaman

[Chorus]
Habang may tatsulok at sila ang nasa tuktok
Di matatapos itong gulo

Lumilipas ang hininga ng kay raming mga tao
At ang dating munting bukid, ngayo’y sementeryo
Totoy kumilos ka, baliktarin ang tatsulok
Tulad ng dukha, nailagay mo sa tuktok

[repeat Refrain and Chorus]
[repeat Refrain and Chorus]
[repeat Chorus]

Di matatapos itong gulo

CREDITS: Bamboo's official website: http://www.bamboo.com.ph/discography_tatsulok.html
Youtube user http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=fogdisc for posting the video

tell me who your friends are and i'll tell you if they're on my friendster too

Friendster still alive huh?

I've been a member since 2003. I had seven Dave AL accounts. Remember those series of accounts that are known like Dave AL UNO, Dave AL DOS, Dave AL TRES, Dave AL CUATRO, Dave AL CINCO, Dave AL SEIS and the cunning Dave AL EXCLUSIVE?

Please don't laugh at that. It was popular in years 04-05, right? Having multiple accounts was a norm two-three years ago because one Friendster account can only accomodate 500 friends (or sometimes 502) back then.

It was an elitist cyber-space race.

If you had three FULL accounts, you're popular. You're an online extrovert. You're Mr. Friendster. You're an official web-slut.

Of course we agree. I was one of the web-sluts. I don't even know who these people were, these faces without names on my Friends list. Whatever happened to the definition of the word "friend"?

Heck, I never even met most of those hundreds of friends. I never got introduced, never got acquainted, never talked, never mailed, never texted, never hanged out, never had time to drink coffee OR beer with.

So you get my point. Or let me ask this:

"WHAT'S THE F****N POINT OF KEEPING FIVE OR SIX OR SEVEN OR EIGHT OR NINE OR TEN FRIENDSTER ACCOUNTS WHEN YOU DON'T F****N KNOW WHO THOSE PEOPLE IN YOUR FRIENDS LIST ARE?"

Pardon my French. It just helps to belt it out sometimes. So that I'd wake myself up from a very bad, fad nightmare.

(To my Caucasian friend's question: "Has anyone in the Philippines ever thought of migrating to MySpace? Friendster lost steam in the West" My answer is Naah. Never crossed our Third-World minds. Let the American teenage girls and trying-hard rock bands deal with the hacker-friendly MySpace... Filipinos are Friendster fanatics-loyalistas, so f*ck off)

Last week, I canceled all my other Friendster accounts except the one I'm using now (the former Dave AL Exclusive account -- Exclusive accounts are supposedly the accounts that hold real-life friends/acquaintances)...

I felt pride and relief when I let go of those slutty Friendster accounts with all the cam-whoring pictures that come with them.

Goodbye Dave AL UNO FULL!
Goodbye Dave AL DOS FULL!
Goodbye Dave AL TRES FULL!
Goodbye Dave AL CUATRO!
Goodbye DAVE AL CINCO!
Goodbye Dave AL SEIS!

Now I'm wondering, what will I do to my fake and ghost Friendster profiles? Hehe.

so you're from science high?

OKAY. You're from Science High.

Don’t say you weren’t warned. Being a science high school student is not easy. And I’m not even talking about the academic overload, the expensive science experiments, or the colossal pile of paperwork and projects. They’re all breeze to me, looking back at my four-year tenure in Nosci. I’m talking about the sheer label - “Sci-High student”. Just by being a graduate of a science high school means a lot. Most of the time, that means Great Expectations. Does that sound familiar to you?

When I was asked by The Scholar to write about life after Nosci, I was extremely hesitant. I couldn’t do it. What would I write about? I’m not even much of an achiever or a star when I went to college. In fact, I think I’m even a slacker, or a failing mark. But hey, I thought, why should I be ashamed of that? I have a message to the young people that is about to take the path I chose, or the paths I did not. Life after Nosci was both good and bad. But mostly bad. I’ll tell you why.

Let me first get back to my primary thought. You now all know that, by being a Noscian, the moment you stepped in your first class as an Einstein or Edison student, your whole perspective in life changed. You started forgetting about childhood – instead you got excited learning who Archimedes was or how different speed is from velocity. You took note of formulas in Physics or Chemistry and always made sure your grades in Math can make it to the cut-off score. My point is, you matured early because of an advanced education. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. That’s a fact.

Now, by the time you get to senior year, it’s either that you are already exhausting your brains out, OR you are just beginning your Golden Era in Advanced Physics, Advanced Chem, Advanced Research, whatever. And then you plan your after-high-school-life. You take all the qualifying exams for top universities in the island, in the country or abroad. You straighten yourself out – this is it. You have gone through a tedious preparatory program that readied you to face the big C – “College” – where you are of course, expected to excel at. Magic word is – Expected.

This is one topic that my batch-mates and former schoolmates have oftentimes debated upon. What is expected of a science high school graduate? Is he or she required to finish a Bachelor of Science degree at the least possible time (which is usually 4-5 years)? Is he or she obliged to maintain a respectable status, or a reputation of excellence? Is he or she invincible to failures and shortcomings in the decisions he or she make? Is a Noscian supposed to be bound by an unwritten contact to be the best?

The truth as of the moment is, indeed, yes. If you’re from Science High, you should be intelligent. Make that really intelligent. You should be good in the Sciences. You should be good in Math. You should be good in this, in that. You should know the answer to this, the correct procedure for that. Get the drift? To illustrate, try to see what reactions you get when you meet new people who’d find out you’re from a science high school: “Really? Alam ka gali?”

This is what’s wrong with the society that we ourselves have created. We have allowed people to impose standards on us, on our performance, on the decisions we make every day. We have allowed people to tell us what to do with our lives. This is not to discredit the noble intentions of the founders of Nosci or to dismiss the great efforts to gather the intellectually-capable Negrense youth for a top-class secondary education program. But this is to remind us that we are 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds, 15-year-olds, 16-year-olds. We are ought to commit mistakes, to stumble, to fail, to make wrong decisions. This is the most effective way for all of us to learn.

My life after Nosci, as I wrote earlier, is mostly bad. I was overwhelmed by my ambitions and when I was unable to reach most of them, everything became a frustration. There was even a point when I gave up, and never thought of picking myself up from hurt and disappointment. But I figured – there was something else that Science High taught me, other than chemical symbols or endangered species. There was an even more important thing that I learned in Science High, which makes me ultimately proud and confident to stand up and face the world.

I learned how to be tough.

So this is the bottom-line of it all: You are from Science High. You are smart. You are strong. Even if your plans don’t work out fine, or you don’t get that scholarship for college or no matter how you fail the people that expects too highly of you – Go on. The tenacity of your Noscian spirit will make you go through all sorts of challenges. Be confident – You are capable of adapting to different kinds of people and environment. Don’t think about the path you have to choose – as long as you have the guts to carry on. Don’t be afraid to fail, for you will always make it in the end. It’s in your blood, in your head, and in your heart. You are a Noscian.

I just hope that the Noscian community, which is by the way happily growing, will cultivate among ourselves a culture of liberation from unhealthy expectations. It is not by scientific method we mold persons of great value – it is by giving ourselves all the chances in the world to learn both from our notes and from experience. It is not by advanced education that we can build humanity from; it will only produce either premature intellectuals, or intellectual monsters. It is by providing enough opportunity for the humans in ourselves to develop, to strengthen our character and to unravel the meaning and lay out the direction of our own lives, on our own.

***This was published in the Alumni page of The Scholar 2007, official student publication of Negros Occidental Science High School. Dave was the Editor-in-Chief of the said school paper from 2003-04.

BOND 007

Bond. Dave's bond.

Nope, I didn't go to the movies for c-ASS-ino royale. I am refering to a "bond", which is according to the Reader's Digest - Oxford Complete Wordfinder (a childhood friend since the late 90's), a thing that "ties another down or together... a binding engagement; an agreement."

And BOND 007 is just my trite label for the brand new set of personal new year resolutions.

Since new year resolutions always end up eaten up by circumstance and therefore they never really got resolved at all, I will post my 2006 new year res's again.

1. Lose weight
2. Quit smoking
3. Stop biting my nails (it's so
redundant for a smoker)
4. Never commit
5. Maintain a blog

I had other res's on that 2006 list, but all the others I unbelievably managed to execute. Like, eating slower, talking slower, writing more than talking, loving life, moving on, and all those lame emotional promises I made to myself. Really. Got over my frustrations and I feel good I ended the year right. I ended 2006 the way I started it: with conviction to get rid of emotional and psychological baggage and just to sit back, relax and accept my life's pace and direction.

Congratulations, Dave. You made it.

This year I stand up and take back what I lost. Sure, I pacified myself in '06 and temporarily put my dreams at halt. It was like sailing in the Pacific Ocean without the storms. But for '07, I gotta move my ass. I got to chase my dreams and make things happen in my life. Enough of the meditations and silent pauses for Zen rituals.

I want to stop aspiring and dreaming. I want to start dreaming stronger and doing things like I should. The storms of the Pacific are gathering, and I should sail through them all. Typhoon after typhoon I shall withstand the rough and violent waves of this sea, for I know there is always a calm after the storm.

An elegant, beautiful, inspiring, rewarding calm after the storm.

In addition to those 5 res's I haven't managed to execute well in 2006, here are my Bond 007 resolutions:

1. Get a job
2. Win back some friends
3. Make decisions with conviction
4. Work out my aspirations
5. Move my ass to where I should belong
6. Prove my worth to myself
7. Stop bitching about how bad life is
8. Start rolling up my sleeves and do the dirty work
9. Keep a wallet for money and receipts and photos and condoms
10. Arrange my books in my study shelf
11. Win a Palanca award (haha, I think this one res would run up to 2020)

Now I feel like James Bond with a Great Mission for Her Majesty.
(insert Agent 007 theme song here.)

new year, new blog

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it hundreds of times.

That was what I always remember from Sam Clemens (Mark Twain)'s brilliant catch-phrases. And to para-phrase that:

Giving up blogging is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it approximately eleven times.

Started the whole blogging thing in the year 2003. My first blog was called "Disturbing Derelict", proof of my habit of alliteration with the letter D. My email back then was Davestation@Techemail.com (I don't even know if Techemail still exists) and my forum/radio codename was DearDaniel (male partner of Hello Kitty). I know. That was four years ago. It's almost cyber-nostalgia.

So the Disturbing Derelict became just plain derelict. I lost all my posts there. Then I started posting at Allpoetry.com. It's not really a blog, but a personals site where you can post your poetry, stories, writing contests, etc. I still have my profile HERE. The writeups there are totally disturbing,and immature. Read at your own risk. Just don't tell me I didn't warn you.

And then I started my first Friendster blog year 2004, along with my Downelink blog late that year. Both blogs in the said personals site are all gone since I canceled my accounts from both sites. Back in 2004 I had my Old Blogger account, too. But all my posts in the old Blogger are so three years ago. Then I have a few other, negligible blog attempts. I estimate I had eleven blogs for the last four years.

My problem with blogging is that I start pretty good, I maintain it for a week, and lose time and interest for it the next. I always forget I have a blog to maintain, concluding that I didn't have to keep a blog anyway because blogging are just for bored and boring people.

I am wrong, of course. Or right. I don't know. BLOG=BORE?

So what. Now it's 2007 and I want to re-live my blogging habit. My mind has been stagnant (but pacific, to be positive about it) for the past year. And this year, I want to get crazy with my thoughts again.

THUS, THE TRAUMESTURM. (German phrase for "dreamstorms").

Träumesturm is my sojourn through the violent storms of my imagination; it is sailing through the vast ocean stirred by supertyphoons of ideas, thoughts and sensations. My dreamstorms take me away from reality... But the calm after the storms always bring me back to life.

So there.

(I am simultaneously posting at my Friendster account)