Speed Racer

Bad:

Cinematography - A movie of this scale should have had more wide shots. Instead, zooming in from close-up to close-up to another close-up to yet another close-up will almost make you nauseous.

Racing Physics - Okay, it was more like spinning rather than racing. The cars spin almost always during races. Intended spinning. The race felt like the cars were on ice with absolutely no traction. I particularly like the car battles, but these lightweight cars seemed indestructible.

Good:

Color Palette - It reminded me of Nickelodeon's Lazy Town. Which is somewhat a good thing. Seiichi loved that show and the hues always made us relax.

Roger Allam (Mr. Royalton) and Paulie Litt (Spritle Racer) - Great acting. They were more memorable than Speed Racer himself.

Bottom Line: Even if you're a fan of the original animated series, it's not the end of the world if you happen to miss this movie. Anyway, watch this movie when you have nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon and you just want to sit back on your couch. Just block it from your mind that this is a Wachowski movie and you're all set.

Hypermile Your Life

I just came across an amazing article in Wikipedia and Wikihow. It's about Hypermiling.

Hypermiling is a term used in North America that refers to a set of techniques used to maximize fuel economy. Those who practice the techniques are referred to as "hypermilers."

Ever since I've read these articles, I've been practicing common techniques to save fuel like idling, drafting, and braking techniques. It is almost a habit now. Everytime I step behind the wheel, I think - "Hypermile my car, Hypermile my life."

Tisyong, ikaw na ba yan?

If you look closely at the picture above, you can see the two distinct purple lines forming in the marked indicators of the pregnancy kit. That could mean only one thing: Mae Dei and I are expecting our third child! I'm so excited, I can't even begin to explain! Happy times and crazy times ahead!
I don't want to get ahead of myself but, we already have a name for a baby boy (a Star Wars character) although we're undecided yet on a name for a baby girl (we have an idea but it's not set in stone yet).
This is not really unexpected. We've been talking about having another baby for almost a year now. We, however, could have made some preparations/techniques/methods to make sure we have a boy this time. Yep, you heard me right - we could have at least done more to increase the chance of conceiving a baby boy (we have two girls). Believe it or not, there are dietary recommendations, temperature and time of day considerations, Chinese birth calendar guides (Lunar), astrological guides (Sun, Moon, and Zodiac), and a number of myths and other scientific tips for this. A quick Google search will give almost all the information you need.

Quick Movie Reviews

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - It was a fairly good movie. Much like the other Mummy movies, it was action-packed and had a relatively engaging plot. However, you can tell that not having Rachel Weisz play the role of Evey had a negative impact to the overall feel of the movie. It just wasn't as refreshing without her. Anyway, this is an easy call, The Mummy Returns is still the best out of of all three Mummy movies.

The Dark Knight - It IS the best superhero movie in the history of film. Great special effects, cinematography, acting, story, and plot. Bad Batman voice. Nothing that will revolutionize the entire film industry, but it does stake claim to the best superhero film ever. Pending Snyder's Watchmen that is.

Felon - Nothing to see here. Please move along.

You Don't Mess With the Zohan - This may very well be the worst Adam Sandler movie.

Hancock - This movie got so many bad reviews from either friends or critics, I watched it without any expectations at all. Turns out it wasn't really that bad - it was an "okay" popcorn movie. Which means, watch it if you don't want to think about what you're seeing.

Impact Point - "A sexy volleyball thriller." - without sex.

Kung-Fu Panda - A measure of how good an animated movie for children is the children themselves. I watched this with my two daughters and within 15 minutes, they were already doing something else.

Pathology - "Mga doktor lang makaka-appreciate nyan..." - my wife

Rescue Dawn - Christian Bale actually agreed to do this movie? Elton Brand (professional basketball player and movie producer) must really have some deep pockets.

Harold and Kumar: Escapa from Guantanamo Bay - If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. Other than that, same same. Rob Cordry was exceptionally funny here, by the way.

Hot Rod - The highlight of the entire movie was the "punch dancing" scene. If not for anything else, you may see this movie just for that.

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - This is actually one of the funniest movies of the year. But why did it have so many dick shots?

New Ville Rant

We moved from Marikina to Cainta a month ago. I definitely miss Longhorn, I grew up there, actually, I spent my entire 29 years at that place - not just a house but a home. The new village in Cainta is "okay," but far from perfect.
Consider this: the apartment is a full two kilometers away from the gate - that translates to around half a liter of gasoline just to travel to the gate and return, and don't even get me started on gas prices. Between the gate and the apartment, you have to go through no less than 10 road humps. Think about that for a minute. Ten humps. In a distance of 2 kilometers. Ten! And these aren't even nicely curved road humps. These are broken down, really high, suspension breaking road humps where you have to completely stop to go over them. Its like their purpose is not to slow down vehicles but rather to BREAK them. On a stick shift, you can't even go on fourth or fifth gear because the humps are positioned unevenly every 200 meters or so. I have to endure this EVERY day. Not to mention the traffic you have to go through outside the village to get to anywhere.
Another thing that is not helping is that stray animals are everywhere. In just a single month, I have already injured three dogs and a cat, by running over them on the road. (Disclaimer: I may or may ot have killed some of them) Honestly, I sincerely did not mean to hurt these "pets." Everyone has gone through this. It was like the dogs had no idea what to do when they saw headlights - i'm gonna cross, no i'm not gonna cross, i'm gonna cross, no i'm not gonna cross... i'm gonna... (insert non-offensive sound text of something hitting a car). This is the difference between Cainta and Marikina. In Marikina, the stray pet law (or whatever they call it) is strictly enforced. Strictly enforced. All stray animals are caught and caged and all pets are registered in each barangay. They have people going around the city JUST for this purpose. If you've been to Marikina, you'd see that there are absolutely no stray animals anywhere.
Anyway, things aren't really not dire. This village has a lot of positives as well. The apartment, although small, is very homey. Seiichi's school is just two blocks away from the apartment. This school is really nice and not that expensive. Syd is much nearer now to Assumption Antipolo and her school bus got a lot cheaper. The clubhouse has a swimming pool. The inihaw food you can buy around the village is really, really good. The village is nearer to malls and is nearer to Ortigas and to Eastwood (although not really a lot). And my wife's bestfriend lives on the same village.
At the end of the day, the thing that is mostly on my mind is - Until when will we keep on renting an apartment and when will we get a house of our own?
That is an entirely different chapter by itself.

D-Wade is back?

He has been tearing it up at the Olympics. Showing off his natural athleticism and the explosiveness that gave Miami their first championship in franchise history. I particularly liked this quote from Zo: "I see him as a MVP candidate this year and I told him that a goal of his should be to on first team all-defense and there is no reason he shouldn't be there." All-defense first team is not a stretch for Wade. He was the best shot blocking guard in the entire league a couple of years back (if you consider Josh Smith a forward).
So is D-Wade back? Not until he shows up healthy on the first day of the regular season and plays all 82 games.