Friday, March 21, 2003
EXCUSE ME, DO YOU HAVE SIZE 9 RUBY SLIPPERS?
11:29pm
I'm still at the office.
Having to deal with revisions that should've been dealt with earlier in the evening.... BUT NOOOOO!!!
Client asking for something more HIP! More hip???
Oh, really now?
AAAARRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH!!!
I wish I was else where.
Running on the rooftops...
Feeling the evening breeze rush past my body as a jump from building to building...
Swinging from lamp post to electrical pole...
Catapulting myself to the top of some highrise...
To be able to bring myself as far away from this...
Far away...
AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH
AND SCREAM
Nakakapagod na talaga ang buhay na ganito.
I wonder if life gets easier after all of this.
I pray that life gets easier after all of this.
SANS SPANDEX
When I was a kid I wanted to be a super-hero.. a crime fighter! I'd read DAREDEVIL and BATMAN and dreamed that one day... one night, I'd prowl the rooftops of Manila and swing from building to... wait a minute! I realized, there were not much buildings to swing from and if I patrolled the rooftops I'd be mistaken for a member of the Akyat-Bahay Gang. Of course, there was also the problem of my weight and since I loved eating, I never really got into shape to be a superhero.
Such things did not stop David Belle from developing the art of Le Parkour and run the rooftops of Paris. It is a relatively new urban sport in France, which means "obstacle-coursing".
Described by adepts as an art-form or even a philosophy, Le Parkour consists of finding new and often dangerous ways through the city landscape - scaling walls, roof-running and leaping from building to building. "Le Parkour - or the Art of Movement - is a way of using the obstacles found in one's path to perform jumps and acrobatics.
It has become so popular that Le Parkour was featured in a BBC TV commercial starring Belle himself.
The TVC is entitled RUSH HOUR and features a man (Belle) leaving work through his office window and crossing the gridlocked city via the rooftops in order to get home in time to watch his favourite programme on BBC ONE. No special effects were used in the TVC. All the action was filmed for real, including a breathtaking 23 feet building-to-building leap, 200 feet above the street.
I first saw the BBC "RUSH HOUR" commercial in the office and all the guys commented that Belle moved like Spider-Man or Daredevil. Which made me think, the DAREDEVIL movie might have been more exciting if Ben Affleck roamed the city like a Traceur (one who practices La Parkour). Or it might have been better if the producers just got David Belle to replace Affleck.
What got me researching about La Parkour is the comic book GLOBAL FREQUENCY. The issue that comes out this month is about a Traceur who has 20 minutes to find and stop a bomb from exploding in the middle of London-- saving the world without a costume.
There's also a series of NIKE PRESTO commercials that show some Traceurs leaping around the city.
Luc Besson even made a movie called YAMAKASI, which was about a group of friends who practiced Le Parkour.
I wonder if this sport will pick up here. The question is, where do you do it? Manila? Malate area? Maybe in some parts of Makati?
It would be fun to try it out.
And maybe I can even wear my costume.
he he he
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East.
CUYAHOGA FALLS -- A member of Ohio's 5694th National Guard Unit in Mansfield legally changed his name to a Transformers toy.
Optimus Prime is heading out to the Middle East with his guard unit on Wednesday to provide fire protection for airfields under combat.
"On Sunday, we were awarded as the best firefighting unit in the Army National Guard in the entire country," said Prime. "That was a big moment for us."
Prime took his name from the leader of the Autobots Transformers, which were popular toys and a children's cartoon in the 1980s.
He legally changed his name on his 30th birthday and now it's on everything from his driver's licence, to his military ID, to his uniform.
BLOGGING IN BAGHDAD
(5:46am) air raid sirens in baghdad but the only sounds you can here are the anti-aircraft machine guns. will go now.
(6:40am) there is still nothing happening im baghdad we can only hear distant expolsions and there still is no all clear siren. someone in the BBC said that the state radio has been overtaken by US broadcast, that didn't happen the 3 state broadcasters still operate.
from the blog of SALAM PAX
San Diego Comic-Con will happen on July 17-20.
Wonder if it will be safe to go to America by then.
Talk about priorities.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
*
“What is the difference between an elephant and an alligator?” the old man asked me. It wasn’t a question, it was the way he taught. The way his ancestors have taught since the beginning of his tribe.
“One’s a mammal, one’s a reptile. One lives on land and visits water, one lives in water and visits land. One is a flesh-eater, the other a vegetarian. Neither have natural enemies.
“But both are hunted, yes?”
“Yes, I see. The elephant for their ivory, the alligator for their hides. They have the same enemy—man.”
“You do not see. I asked you the difference, not the similarity.”
“I told you many differences.”
“Yet you missed the essential one. The difference that separates them forever.”
“Is this a riddle?”
“Not a riddle, not a mystery. A truth you can learn… if you listen.”
“I’m listening.”
“The baby alligator comes out of the egg a perfectly formed predator. It will not grow, it will only get larger, do you see? It learns nothing. From the moment of its birth, it fights to survive. If it succeeds, if it reaches its full size, it hunts. At birth, it is six inches long. In adulthood, it increases in power, in skill. But no matter what its fate, it will always be what it was born to be.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Your work is with children. To work with children, you must know the child. The baby elephant cannot survive on its own. It need nurturing, it need protection. Without love, it dies. Depending on how it is raised, the baby elephant grows to be a work animal, a circus performers, a peaceful beast content to live in harmony with the herd, its family. But some elephants grow up to be rogues, dangerous to man. Depending on how they are raised, that is the key. You see the difference now?”
“Yes”
“And so, ask yourself, are the children of men alligators, doomed to be what they will be from the moment of their birth… or are they elephants, fated to be nothing specific… and capable of anything?”
From “ANOTHER CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT” by Andrew Vachss
Children of the world. Future flowers, now seeds. Some hand-raised, nourished in the love-enriched ground. Others tossed carelessly on the coldest concrete, struggling beneath Darwin’s dispassionate sunlight. Each unique, snowflake-individualized. And all the same. Our race. The human race. One color—many shades. Treasures to some, toys to others. They will reach the stars and stalk the shadows. What children are, more than anything else, is this: another chance for our flawed species. Another chance to get it right.
“What is the difference between an elephant and an alligator?” the old man asked me. It wasn’t a question, it was the way he taught. The way his ancestors have taught since the beginning of his tribe.
“One’s a mammal, one’s a reptile. One lives on land and visits water, one lives in water and visits land. One is a flesh-eater, the other a vegetarian. Neither have natural enemies.
“But both are hunted, yes?”
“Yes, I see. The elephant for their ivory, the alligator for their hides. They have the same enemy—man.”
“You do not see. I asked you the difference, not the similarity.”
“I told you many differences.”
“Yet you missed the essential one. The difference that separates them forever.”
“Is this a riddle?”
“Not a riddle, not a mystery. A truth you can learn… if you listen.”
“I’m listening.”
“The baby alligator comes out of the egg a perfectly formed predator. It will not grow, it will only get larger, do you see? It learns nothing. From the moment of its birth, it fights to survive. If it succeeds, if it reaches its full size, it hunts. At birth, it is six inches long. In adulthood, it increases in power, in skill. But no matter what its fate, it will always be what it was born to be.”
“I understand.”
“Do you? Your work is with children. To work with children, you must know the child. The baby elephant cannot survive on its own. It need nurturing, it need protection. Without love, it dies. Depending on how it is raised, the baby elephant grows to be a work animal, a circus performers, a peaceful beast content to live in harmony with the herd, its family. But some elephants grow up to be rogues, dangerous to man. Depending on how they are raised, that is the key. You see the difference now?”
“Yes”
“And so, ask yourself, are the children of men alligators, doomed to be what they will be from the moment of their birth… or are they elephants, fated to be nothing specific… and capable of anything?”
From “ANOTHER CHANCE TO GET IT RIGHT” by Andrew Vachss
Children of the world. Future flowers, now seeds. Some hand-raised, nourished in the love-enriched ground. Others tossed carelessly on the coldest concrete, struggling beneath Darwin’s dispassionate sunlight. Each unique, snowflake-individualized. And all the same. Our race. The human race. One color—many shades. Treasures to some, toys to others. They will reach the stars and stalk the shadows. What children are, more than anything else, is this: another chance for our flawed species. Another chance to get it right.
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