Old Locks

The house where I live has been there for 23-ish years; two years older than me and about as old as my sister. Aging houses often mean occasional tune ups to keep it in good condition. The reason why I brought this up was because the old reliable door that we locked at night refused to open to the turn of the key from the inside. There was more progress from outside but that only went as far as a turn of the key and nothing else.

It was completely hopeless from inside. I tried toggling from outside. It was tough. But somehow, success!

Even old reliable locks need to be replaced when it stops us from passing through. Guess it was its way of saying to use the actual front door.

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Review: The Help

To be honest, I was uniquely intrigued when I saw The Help nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, along with other categories such as Best Actress for Viola Davis and Best Supporting Actress for Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer. Out of the four, Spencer came out with the win. From what I picked up from the snippets shown during the airing of the Awards, it revolved around a familiar situation of uber-racist proportions.

Of course, this isn't the first drama I've encountered that tackled something as monumental as white against colored people ,or at least the mistreatment of the latter. Rather, it's not the first movie I appreciated so much when it comes to building a bridge between two races. Two others that come to mind are Hairspray, the musical-turned-movie about breaking status quo, and Something the Lord Made, a medical drama TV movie based on true events revolving around the collaboration of two doctors - one white and one colored (who starts off as a carpenter). These two contrast in many ways but come together where it matters most.

Hairspray, being a musical, underscored its plot through song and dialogue. It remains light but has a lot more to say beyond a show featuring the "nicest kids in town". Behind the scenes there's the issue of racism and close-mindedness with typical high class white women who will do anything to keep things where they are.

Something the Lord Made, on the other hand, is a true tale of the complex partnership of black cardiac pioneer Vivien Thomas (Mos Def) and white surgeon Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), who work together to solve the Blue Baby Syndrome. Their story revolves around the prevalent racism of segregation where most - well, all - black employees are no more than class 3 employees.

Ultimately, The Help once again brings the issue of black or white to the big screen, with a flavor of focusing on issues revolving around colored help and raising white children. The movie dons powerful insight into slipping through the cracks show and tell the perspective and overall state of the maids during this oppression. It evokes the freedom and courage to speak the truth behind an anonymity in the midst of racist white housewives whose only concern is to mind theirown kind, complain about sharing bathrooms and bridge tournaments.

This story emotionally moved me to understand where these maids were coming from and the bond that formed between these people and the people they worked for, if it ever was something to be cherished. I guess the best thing I can take away from this wonderful move are the words Aibileen Clark (Viola Davis) imparts to Mae Mobley, the toddler she takes care of:

You is kind. You is smart. You is important.

Artemis Fowl Collection

Last weekend, convinced Kai to help me sort out my bookshelves and take down some old Encyclopedias from my youth that was taking up the space. Primarily, I wanted to do this so that I could rearrange some of my shelves to contain my absolute favorite books and as a display space for my growing figuring/toy collection. For now, this short entry is just a feature on a completed set of books I recently championed last Friday when I bought books 2 and 3 of the series to complete it! So right there in the middle of the picture below, you see all 8 books of the series, coupled with some other interesting titles~

1. Artemis Fowl

2. Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident

3. Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code

4. Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception

5. Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony

6. Artemis Fowl: The Time Paradox

7. Artemis Fowl: The Atlantis Complex

8. Artemis Fowl: The Last Guardian

Once I've finished reading my Fifty Shades trilogy, I'll most likely get to work on Frozen Heat by October when I get my copy before re-reading the series~ :D But for the meantime, I'll try coaxing my girlfriend to finally read it because she's missed out on everything.

Birthday greetings~

September 13: Tenimyu Season 1 Hyoutei A cast's Ootori Choutarou, Seto Yuusuke

September 15: Tenimyu Season 1 Fudomine cast's 2nd Tachibana Kippei, Kitadai Takashi

September 16: Team Batista's Narumi Ryo, Miyagawa Daisuke

September 17 (today): Tenimyu Season 1 Seigaku 1st cast's Inui Sadaharu, Aoyama Sotai and Hyoutei B cast's Mukahi Gakuto, Fukuyama Seiji

Fifty Shades

When I was browsing through my News Feed on Facebook, I saw a parody cover of the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' with Gandalf the Grey and Frodo wearing a ball gag. Granted, it was enough to pique my interest and made me ask the question: "What the hell is that?" And so the search began.

Thanks to Google, I got my answer as soon as I clicked on the Wikipedia entry. To my surprise, Fifty Shades of Grey penned by E L James was in fact a book. Categorized as an Erotic Romance novel catered to mature audiences (or basically anyone who can take reading carefully depicted sex scenes without fainting), Fifty Shades of Grey and the rest of its trilogy is not for the feint of heart.

Saying it that way would in essence answer the unspoken question of whether or not I could handle the topic, let alone all the smut. To be honest I enjoy reading these types of things to help in my so called "research" (take the air quotes a bit seriously but no pressure) for my fanfiction or blog roleplays. Plus it put things - like all those yaoi, yuri and hentai manga - in better perspective with good descriptions like James uses in the book. Yes I've read fanfictions that off the same prowess but there are limited reading materials that 1) use first person PoV and 2) talks excessively about the practices of BDSM which also turns out to be a topic of interest to me.

But don't get me wrong! There is no way you would convince me to suck up my submissiveness and get involved in all that. Again, I take interest in using what I learn through research and reading explicit manga titles like 'Hoshi no Yutaka', as well as the Fifty Shades Trilogy, for character development in my fanfictions and roleplays. Not to mention the general theme of writing out elaborate sex scenes (or lemons) has grown to be a talent of mine as time passes and this book is just helping me along that swimmingly. Fifty Shades provides me with an excellent avenue to explore heterosexual interloping jumping out from the pages of a book, crafted into a story to die for. A great inspiration and ultimately, a niche away from its primary idea as being a mere fanfiction of the Twilight series.

With all these descriptions it may already be obvious that I am in full swing of reading through the three books. I purchased them during my family's trip to the US a few weeks back; the first at Barnes & Noble in San Diego, and the other two at Costco wholesale in San Francisco. I am well into the second book as of this writing, and already there are dozens of ideas to stemp from it. The possibilities are endless.

When time permits, something more than a drabble will rear its head, probably once I've finished the trilogy of books. Here's to that undying splash of creativity!

And looking forward to the upcoming movie! :)

Go-Busters

Go-Busters Ranger Key Set 2 KITAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Wait, wrong catch phrase. xD 

Well anyway, I got these guys over at Toys R Us Greenbelt 5, so it was a good snag since that meant I now have 3 complete set of Ranger Keys. I admit I was a bit skeptical of getting them since I was pretty backlogged in watching the series as I was prioritizing finishing Fourze as it was nearing its finale at the time. But Kai and I found the time to update ourselves and watch all the episodes we missed, and that was enough to convince me that they were interesting enough to get these keys. 

Gokai Change!

Gokai Change!

DISCLAIMER: Do forgive me for the lack of posts for the past few weeks. After I came back from our US trip it was straight back to work so I've got a backlog of topics to talk about. But worry not, I assure you they'll be fun and varied. 

It's not a secret that I enjoy Sentai Series; heck, I watch the recent ones fervently! Gokaiger is one of those uberly awesome part of the Sentai series that is fun to watch and doubly awesome to try and collect its merchandise. One such merchandise is the Mobirates and the subsequent flurry of Ranger Keys it can accommodate.

While I would very much enjoy having the actual Gokaiger Mobirates on hand, it was a bit heavy on the wallet (priced at Php4000+), so I settled with the Legend Mobirates instead, which was at about Php1600+.

The first time I peeled it away from its packaging, I was expecting it to be big and bulky, just like the show. Sure enough, it was exactly that. Of course, it varies from the Gokaiger Mobirates by a long shot (though aesthetic-wise it was just a contrast of silver and gold features) in terms of the sounds you can come up. There are quite a few codes you can get out of this bad baby, to which I'm entertained by.

As you've probably already gathered from previous posts, I already had a pack of Ranger Keys (the first 3 of the Go-Busters) without much purpose besides playing around with it. But with this purchase, things became more interesting, and the fuel to collecting more Ranger Keys was more of a fun collecting hobby that I wanted to ignite.

   

Aside from that, I've also purchased two new sets: Gekiranger and Dekaranger. I'm aiming to get the second set of the Go-Busters Ranger keys before continuing my hunt. Oh, and with the Mobirates was a free Ranger key of AkaRed (find the lonely guy in the middle of all the sets)! You can find my current set of Ranger keys below~

The latest to the collection was something my sister's boyfriend Kiks gave me (obviously just after I took that picture)! I believe it was from a gashapon egg since it needed some assembling, but it was a new Ranger Key. Kai and i weren't sure what it was - a low moment for us Gokaiger fanatics I know - so I slotted it into the Mobirates and found out it was Sun Vulcan. Hello VulEagle!

My next intended grab of the Ranger Keys is to complete the Go-Buster set. Beet Buster, and Stag Buster/J Ranger keys are already out in the market. Fingers crossed I get them okay!