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Dec 21
 There is nothing better than going into a movie with the thought that it was praised to the high heavens by even the harshest critics and still come out of the theater saying it was better than they had said. Avatar simply blew me away. It has been a while since I finished the end credits to a movie, as it has always been a practice of mine to do so when it leaves me in utter awe and applause, and this movie was definitely one of them.
In what was probably the best example of photo-real CG on the big screen to-date, this movie simply blows away anything that has been shown before it. The interactions between the characters and the environment is truly incredible. It’s been a long time since I’ve been so engrossed in a movie and seriously wanted to believe that I was actually part of it, and Avatar certainly took it that far. The world of Pandora was simply amazing and I was in constant awe at how intricate the details were for everything they created in this world.
The storyline is also pretty good. It’s not really a new idea or anything of the sort, but the way the story was developed along with the characters was quite inspiring. The story revolves around a paraplegic marine who was given the chance to walk again through the use of a unique alien body called an Avatar. Fortunately for the main character Jake, his twin-brother had died and he had practically the same bio-stats so he was a perfect fit for his brother’s Avatar.
His job was to gain the trust of the natives, called the Na’vi, so that Parker (played by Giovanni Ribisi) can harvest the precious metal hidden under their lands without having to resort to the destruction of their world. What follows is Jake’s journey as a human that ends in his conversion to the ways of the Na’vi. He learns their ways and realizes in the end that their world is worth saving even if it means betraying humanity in the process.
The portrayal of both Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) at first seemed rather eerie, but as the movie goes on, it seemed to be rather apt for the entire plot. Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) was played to a tee by the star of Alien, and there were actually scenes where I was expecting the Alien to come out and kill her, hehe. The cast was great although I’m not a big fan of Ribisi and he didn’t do anything in this movie to make me change my mind either. The total package still made this movie one heck of a hit. And I have to say, if you watch the trailer on TV and look at the pictures, it does this movie no justice, and is a far cry from seeing it on the big screen. So please, move your butt to the theater as it is well worth it.
Thinking back at the batch of great movies this year, I think this one is the best of 2009. Avatar is simply epic. I would strongly recommend for you to watch this in the big screen as DVD’s played in your flat screen will do the movie, and yourself, a great injustice. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to watch this in 3D yesterday but I definitely WILL. You should do the same  Kudos to James Cameron and his crew for creating Avatar! This isn’t a movie you can just talk about, you have to go see it.
Personal Rating (out of 10): 9.3/10
IMDb User Rating (out of 10): 8.9/10
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Michelle Rodriguez
Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure
Duration: 162 minutes
Wallpapers: Jake Sully, Neytiri, Stephen Lang, In Flight, Neytiri Pose, Eye of Na’vi, Under Attack
Links: Official Site, IMDB, Pandorapedia
Sep 23
The much-awaited return of the 6th season of House finally premiered last night in a 2-hour special. Episodes 1 and 2 were combined to kick the new season off where House had ended the 5th season entering Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital to help fight off his addiction to vicodin.
Even while in the facility, House is still up to his scheming ways as he finds ways to get the attendant’s letter of recommendation for him to leave the place and be able to practice medicine again. He inevitably finds out that his ways are ineffective as he is up against someone who is always one step ahead of him.
He tries to “help” one of his co-patients using his typical ways but ended up almost killing him. He even almost needed someone again and realized in himself that he needed to follow the rules to be able to truly get better. In the end, he still found a way to help two of his fellow patients to finally get better and it was a fitting end to his cleansing process.
Surprisingly, all this allowed House to finally realize the wrong of his ways and actually SEEMS like he has allowed himself to be open to change. So it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets back to the hospital.
There are very good performances from a few notable stars like and was a very good start to Season 6! I can’t wait for the next episode when he gets back in the hospital to see if he really has changed! You can download the 2-hour special on the torrent options below. Enjoy!
 The much-awaited return of the 6th season of House finally premiered last night in a 2-hour special. Episodes 1 and 2 were combined to kick the new season off where House had ended the 5th entering Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital to help fight off his addiction to vicodin and stave off his hallucinations.
Even while in the hospital, House is still up to his scheming ways as he finds ways to get the ward chief’s letter of recommendation for him to leave the place and be able to practice medicine again. He inevitably finds out that his ways are ineffective as he is up against someone who is always one step ahead of him.
He tries to “help” one of his co-patients using his typical ways but ended up almost killing him. He even almost needed someone again and realized in himself that he needed to follow the rules to be able to truly get better. In the end, he still found a way to help two of his fellow patients to finally get better and it was a fitting end to his cleansing process.
Surprisingly, all this allowed House to finally realize the wrong of his ways and actually SEEMS like he has allowed himself to be open to change. So it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets back to Princeton-Plainsboro.
There are very good performances from some notable stars like Andre Braugher (The Mist, Rise of the Silver Surfer), who played the ward chief very well and who seemed to have “broken” House, and Franka Potente (Bourne Supremacy) who was the girl House almost fell for.
All in all, it was a very good start to Season 6! I can’t wait for the next episode when he gets back in Princeton-Plainsboro to see if he really has changed his ways! You can download the 2-hour special on the torrent options below. Enjoy!
Download Links:
House Season 6 Premiere Episodes 1 and 2 HDTV (699.87MB)
House Season 6 Premiere Episodes 1 and 2 720p (2.19GB)
Jul 27
Four days ago, my friends and I flew to Boracay for a vacation amidst warnings of a few torrential rains and thunderstorms. But it didn’t matter since one of us had offered 12 eggs to the Gods to bless us with fair weather, hehe, and it worked wonders! And after all, I hadn’t set foot there for three years because I’m not a real big beach fan, but the trip turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.
 We stayed at The Tides and it was a more than decent resort, but whatever good attributes it had was totally overshadowed and trumped when we were toured around Shangri-La’s Resort & Spa by our contact Yvette Recto. By definition:
Shan·gri-la \ (sh ng gr -lä ) \ noun
1: an imaginary remote paradise on earth; utopia.
2: a distant and secluded hideaway, usually of great beauty and peacefulness.
And boy, was it that and more! I have been to quite a few resorts here and around the globe, and I’m a very picky too, but I can say that this resort is definitely world-class. We arrived at Shangri-La about half past eleven and we were treated to a sumptuous lunch buffet at the Vintana. The food was exquisite and not the typical buffet where food is stuffed in your face from all over and you’re bloated even before you’ve started. The mix of cuisines from East and West was a great combination and the desserts tickled your sweet-tooth with its fanciful variety.
After our hearty lunch we were whisked off to the guided tour of the resort. Just to give you guys an idea as to how huge the place was, we started touring from the main lobby at 2:30pm and ended up back there riding in our golf carts at around 4:30pm. And to think we probably walked through only half of the entire resort and it took us 2 full hours! All the images contained here are directly from my camera, raw, and this is exactly what we saw walking around this pure Utopia.
We started from the lobby and moved to their deluxe room, which is their smallest room at 60sqm and has broadband access coupled with a flatscreen TV, an iPod dock, and a private balcony with a daybed facing the sea. From there, we moved to their function rooms and then to the Entertainment Centre! This place had everything! It has 2 billiard tables, a karaoke room, an X Box 360, an air hockey table, a ping-pong table, and even a basketball arcade!
And right beside it is the Adventure Zone, a kid’s paradise with 2 huge slides! One that holds 3 to race and drops you down wearing a sack, while the other one dropping you down on a myriad of bouncy balls! I’m telling you, a family can stay here for hours on end and not be bored at all!
After that, we were brought to their gym and gee whiz, you wouldn’t think a resort would have this kind of a facility. It’s state-of-the-art with jacuzzi’s and sauna rooms and a really huge locker room and honestly, I didn’t expect to see this kind of quality. Moving further down, we had a short walk to the Villas, which is really one of the highlights of the tour. It was 99sqm and you would be wowed by how it looked inside. And when you open your door to the outside, it’s already the beachside!
And lastly, the jewel of the resort is the 5,714-square-metre Chi Spa. It is separated into pavillions built specifically to cater to your particular needs and designed as a sanctuary within the resort. If you were looking for a blissful place to relax and soothe those aching muscles from a whole day at the beach, then this is your haven.
Between that and the infinity pools and seemingly endless forest-like paths, the walk was absolutely breathtaking. I was ooohing and aahhhing on practically every place we set foot on and to think ALL of this is part of the package when you stay in the Shangri-La in Boracay.
The cost of staying in paradise? Their promo until October is a mere 14,000++ Php for 3 days/2 nights for 2 pax with the 2nd night free along with breakfast and transfer to and from the airport! All the perks in this resort for 14k is a gift if you ask me compared to whatever resort you’re staying in wherever in the world. I think I’ll go pack now and book another flight to Boracay again for next week, haha!
Nov 08
 I finally got my brand new Honda CRV exactly last week, November 1, and I’ve been driving it for a full week now It’s a wedding gift from my fiancee’s parents but we got it way ahead of schedule, which is great, and we both decided to take turns by having the car with us for a week each. I must say, the experience of having my OWN car plus the fact that it drives great compared to any of the other cars I’ve been driving for half my life had me totally obsess over it, tsk tsk. And now that I’ve got my old car back for a full week, I think I’m already experiencing some separation anxiety, ha ha!
I exchanged cars with Kris (my fiancee) yesterday and had to drive my old worn out Toyota Exsior back home in horrid Friday night traffic. Not that it’s a bad car, it’s just so FAR from how easy and light it was to drive  the CRV, not to mention how amazing an alabaster gray color looked on a full front dark tint. Mmmm. To tell you honestly I knew NOTHING about cars until this new CRV came along, so yeah, obsessed is definitely the word for it. To give you an example, since I started driving it, I’ve logged how many km’s it takes for me to get from one place to another, on every drive I took, as well as how much time it took in terms of minutes for each trip. He he. How sad! But that’s part of my learning process, so let the happy person be! That’s it! Just wanted to rave
Oct 10
In the latest extravagant spending spree in the Middle East, and again in Dubai, yet another wonder has been built in the Gulf. In very close proximity to the 7-star Burj Al Arab hotel, which is the most expensive hotel in the Middle East, comes Atlantis. An £800million resort that will cost you £13,000 for a night’s stay. To put that into perspective in terms of our local currency, that is 66,362,968,405 (66 BILLION 362 million 968 thousand 405 pesos) they used to build the resort and for you to stay in their best suite for ONE night, you only need to pay a modest 1,078,389 (1 MILLION 78 thousand 389 pesos). My God.
This 113-acre resort was built on an artificial island off the Persian Gulf and officially opened for business on September 24, 2008. They say that one of the main drives they had in building such an epic structure was the move towards how tourism can help sustain their economy once regional oil profits stop flowing. So Dubai is pegging its hopes on people who are filthy rich to invest and spend their money there… wisely. He he.
But seriously, this place is a wonder in itself. The mega-resort boasts of 1,539 rooms with 17 restaurants to choose from. They also have what are called the Lost Chambers suites, where the bedrooms all have picture windows that look out through the resort’s 11m-liter lagoon filled with 65,000 specimens of marine life!
On the outside the guests have free access to Atlantis’s 42-acre Aquaventure waterpark. It is a one and a half mile river  you can float in with fantastic rides topped off by the Leap of Faith, an almost straight down 90 feet vertical slide that zips you through a shark-filled lagoon in break-neck speed. The first time I saw this kind of thing was when I was back in my old company and they showed us this vertical slide in the first Atlantis resort in the Bahamas. It was going to be a perk you would get if you hit way past your sales quota. I was in awe at the first sight of it and wanted to go there SO BAD. Now I want to go here! Can I afford £230 a night though to stay in the standard suite? Yes I can, but I won’t do it!
It’s funny how I started writing this blog with three words in my head… Paradise on Earth.  It would have been if it weren’t so darn expensive. It also got me thinking on whether I would actually go and pay £13,000 a night to stay in that unbelievable Lost Chambers suite that they have if I was filthy rich, but my answer would still be a NO. I’d rather spend that much on something else than throw it all away on one night staying in a room, no matter how amazing that room is. But of course, that’s just me. I would still keep hoping though, that some time in the not so distant future, my company would send me here! Ha ha. Until then, I will dream along with the pictures of this place called Atlantis for now, just like all of you will too 
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