Here is a picture of the surviving and enduring members of Neo Paradiso, our high school barkada. It was taken during our graduating year back in St. Francis School in Sta. Ana, Manila.

Thatr's me, fourth from the left, the guy looking down. There were two more members not included in this shot, but who gives a hoot about them?

Sometimes I would like to go back to those days (a time which Kenneth likes to refer to "when we were luggin around in blacks and whites") when our biggest concerns only included passing our subjects, our crushes and worrying about what to do after classes.

Rants and Raves...in the name of Green Lantern


As far as I could look back, I was never into the Funny Comics thing most of the childern my age were so obsessing about. My earliest memories of a comic book would be Green Lantern. My eldest brother absolutely liked Hal Jordan, and since I read what he read I soon caught on the comic book craze.

Through the course of my comic book-reading life, Hal Jordan has always been an uber cool character I could look up to, and ultimately he became my template of an ideal superhero. Not Superman with his invulnerability and god-like strength. Not Batman and his gritty obsession for everything dark. Just Hal Jordan's Green Lantern.

My brother resigned from his work and moved on to a new office. I don't know how or why but the comic books just stopped entering our home. All I saw were those drama Filipino comics my mom fancied for a while.

And then I got into high school where I was so into the X-Men, reading and knowing virtually everything there is to know about them and the spin-off titles. Until I encountered a Green Lantern comic a classmate had owned. The cover looked pretty interesting. "Hal's got a new costume?!" I gasped. I took it home only to find out that I was looking at someone named Kyle Rayner...WHAT???

I was staring at a much, much younger Green Lantern who's a graphic artist (something I've always wanted to be) and has a relationship with Donna Troy (Wonder Girl from the Teen Titans.

Cogs were turning in my pubesccent head.

Kyle's a very interesting person to begin with. He's into a field of work I've dreamed of getting into. And he's a lot more fun to read because his favorite band (I think) happens to be Nine Inch Nails, and he's got a very active imagnation.

On the other hand, I miss Hal. At the back of my mind I kept on thinking what he'd do in the same situations Kyle's in. Hal's too much of an idealist to run amok into a crime-fighting frenzy. Kyle's a bit too impulsive to let the situation get to him. Two different Lanterns, different personalities, same heroic legacy.

Shoot. I'm beginning to sound like a war movie ad.


BUT NO!

HAL may have insane, killed a bunch of Green Lanterns, became Parallax, took an arrow to the chest in Zero Hour, died saving the solar system by restarting the sun and served as the new human host for the Spectre (after it dumped Jim Corrigan, who actually went to heaven)...but he's back! Oh yeah he is! Back to kick some more major ass and he's back with a refined version of his classic costume. Admit it, his Lantern logo has become an Icon, much like Superman's S emblem.

And I am in bliss! Oh YEAH!

Here's a pic...




In brightest day, in blackest night,
No evil shall escape my sight.
Let those who worship evil's might
Beware my power
Green Lanter's Light.

After seeing Mezzo Forte and Kite I was suddenly imbued with the sudden need to create my own teen assasin. Filipino, of course, and would fit in a crowd, and have a very common name. Dumb as it may sound I call him Bong. So I just took a pencil out of my bag and a sheet of paper and here he is.

This is Cammy White from the Street Fighter game series. Yes, I admit to being a video game addict, although I don't use Cammy as fairly often as I would Ken or Ryu. I just like her. Same reason why I like looking at and drawing Lara Croft: she's a babe.

What did i do today?


I woke up to realize that I rented four movies from the local Video City, and all of them are supposed to be back by tomorrow...and I haven't watched any of them. What did I get? There's 50 First Dates, I Am Sam, Freaky Friday and Down With Love.

But before I could even get the DVD player running I am asked to go to Sta. Lucia to buy a Nero installer. Darnit. So I had to drag my freezing ass all the way to Cainta/Pasig for the damn CD.

On my way into the mall, the security guard -who seriously looked like Chino Moreno -with the bulk, the beard and the THICK eyebrows to go with it- stopped me for frisking. A knapsack was dangling from my shoulder, he felt through it and found my tech pens in a dark case. It must've looked very mysterious to them but to frisk me even more is just way overboard!

I had to stand with my legs wide apart and my palm on the glass door, while he felt through my waist, ass and my crotch (what the f*ck???), in search of probably a pistol or a bomb detonator! People were looking at us and I have never been so pointlessly humiliated before, while the security people tried to figure out how to open my pen case! Wish I did carry a grenade, though!

I can still feel myself shaking furiously! Argh!


Good thing I just made a quick in-out with the CD in my hand and an FX/jeepney to Antipolo on my mind. And good thing the movies I rented were waiting for me!

I didn't really wanted to watch Freaky Friday. I only rented it because my neice, Paula, adores Lindsay Lohan. Unfortunately the film was not adorable.

I can't believe I didn't see I AM SAM when it was shown in the cinema before! It's a film that attempts to grab your chest without being obvious. Sean Penn is sucha brilliant actor that he decidedly looked the part, though I really can't erase his brutality in Mystic River from my head.

Down With Love is visually hygenic. You won't see any dark, rotting images. Everything seems to be color coordinated. The clothes, the furnitaure and yes, even Renee Zellweger's dresses (or whatever they're called). The film has the so much the feel of a musical that I felt they're about to bust into a sing-and-dance sequence.

I went to Video City hoping to find some good movies. Tough luck! No Y Tu Mama Tambien, Kruh In Mleko or even Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels in sight. I couldn't even find any brainlessly fun movies like Tomcats, Blade II or Mall Rats. Even newer movies like Magnolia and American Beauty were missing.

Frankly the people selling pirated VCDs on the sidewalk outside the shop had more variety and lots more choices.

Here is a picture of The Flame staff during our Fontana outing.
I'm ripping off Newsiecat's idea for her latest post...even stole the pic.






Mervin Wes Omar Paulie Verns Janice Rachiel Red Teza Kirby May Kiko Jeramie Teresa Van Roselle Beth Fel Djerti Cherry Me Wacko Aaron Augy



I really miss these people (except HeWhoMustNeverBeMentioned). These people were my family when I was still in UST with The Flame. There were those seemingly endless drinking sessions over at Kitten's (it's an inuman area just beside Maria de Leon Transit in Dapitan)
Where the floor had tasted all their intestinal juices (except mine because I never threw up there). Bottles of Colt45, Red Horse and SanMig Lite became witnesses to: 1) the endless laughter, 2) the tears of the bitter, 3) and the rush job on the magazine issues reaching deadline.

What I remember about these people:
Mervin: "Rockstar, pare!"

Wes: "Red Bull..." (when asked what he drunk that made him so tipsy)

Omar: The Bastion of Thomasian **rt, as dubbed by Cherry and Wacko

Paulie: "Excuse me Kirby, but I have to girl..." after which we saw him lying on the floor, unable to move because of the huge amount of alcohol he consumed

Verns: Bouncing Baby Girl

Janice: "Ruffa Guttierezzzzz"

Rachiel: Oh yeah, the TERESA/RACHIEL photo composite

Red: Black polo...with white gumamela print...and the pubes-looking goatee

Teza: "I have to go, I have a cluss (class)."

May: Gilliard and the Burger King sign by the Flame office

Jeramie: Her every word includes a sharp slap on your shoulder, you must really be a masochist to enjoy talking to her

Teresa: The Kare-kare poem she wrote. I spent days, thinking of a passable artwork to accompany it.

Beth: Helping her walk along a street in Malate (outside Jazz Rhythms) while she mumbles to herself, drunk

Djerti: Blow!

Cherry: My formerly devastated sister, who is now a seren creature of responsibilities

Wacko: My Brother who now soars the Cebuano night air with fangs and sharp thoughts

Aaron: The leather jacket. The constantly present Coke bottle. His locker filled with things that go bump and squish in the night.

Lujene: "Hi!" (in an uber High pitch)...aka Olive Oyl, and the "Left Brain/Right Brain test" she conducted in the Flame office

Paolo: "Put*Ina!" (his direct translation to "Kamusta?") which he gladly shouts upon entering the Flame office

To DONNA and to those of you who are wondering who the hell DELIRIUM is (the second to the last quiz I took):

She's from The Sandman mythos, as written by Neil Gaiman. Or better yet, just click on the link below.


The Sandman

You're "Head Club", This time you're serious. You're not going to let people take advantage of you anymore. You didn't want it to be this way, but it's time for you actually stick to what you say.



Which taking back sunday song are you?
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Delirium, the youngest of The Endless, you are the keeper of insanity, delusion and everything else that's just plain crazy.

You make about as much sense as fish and telephone flavored ice cream. You are truly your own person, and the fact that your eyes don't match, your hair is three different colors, and you have a floating fish following you doesn't bother you any.

You have a truly unique perspective on the world, and no one else knows what to think about it.

Which Endless are you?
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Last night Rhuzen, Newsiecat, Ogie, Scarlet and I met up in a Flame reunion of sorts. So there were only five of us there, but still I had fun.

Just five minutes ago I dropped by Newsiecat's blog and found that she had already posted about our "reunion." Below is the part about me:


Sunod, si Luis. Tulad ng dati, huggable pa rin ang mamang ito na hanggang ngayon eh ganun pa rin ang dami ng bigote, hindi na yata nadagdagan. College pa lang, ganun na ang itsura ng bigote niya, hanggang ngayon, ganun pa din! (Nangtokwa naman, Luis! Mag-REGROE ka, baka maremedyuhan yan.)


Ahem. I've grown my facial hair to every length possible (or rather, to every length to the best of my natural abilities). And I took time to snip some of them hourse before I went to Megamall for our meet. And as for my "goatee" (or something remotely resembling/immitating a goatee), well my genes doesn't exactly allow me to grow more of them (you can actually count the strands). But then again I'm not all that excited in growing them to the point of making me look like goat-ish. And apparently, as I have been informed, there is a cheap proxy to REGROE: sabila leaves. I'll know when I try them out.


Pero, pumayat si Luich. Over-S-E-X?! Aminin! Pansin ko nga may chikinini sa mukha si mokong, sa right cheek, mamula-mula, pero hindi naman siya rosy cheek. Hmmm... =p




ME? PUMAYAT? Really? I've always mentioned how unpleasantly corpulent I've grown recently, and here she come with that statement. Now I'm confused. Did I gain weight or lost them? This is what I get for never using the weighing scale at home?
Over-S-E-X??? Newsie, you got no idea how amused I am. But in the back of my head I wish that were true. Eheheheh and a barrel o' rum!
Those are NOT "chikininis!" They are infections I got after using my mom's body creams thinking they were facial. Boy, I know nothing about these things. So I guess that serves as a warning never to tinker with anything in my parent's bedroom.
Sheesh.