The New Twitter

new design will be available to all users over the next several weeks. via twitter.com

Call me up when September ends...

because I will be busy watching all these shows premiering this month...

photos from: cwtv.com
                    abc.go.com
                    cbs.com

Awesome Chef

One of the things I daydream about is myself as a renowned chef. I love watching cooking shows such as Iron Chef, Two Fat Ladies, Barefoot Contessa, The Naked Chef,  Oliver's Twist and a lot more. This inspiring story made me jealous but I also thought that if she was able to do it in spite of her condition, what was my excuse to not follow my dreams or even try to take a step forward in achieving this goal or any goal for that matter? Hmmm. tamad lang.

This is the story of Maricel Apatan:

Alive Again

I've been watching Royal Pains lately and I just love this series. The story is about Hank, a doctor wrongly accused for the death of a benefactor of the hospital he's working for in NYC. When he was dismissed from his job, he had another chance to do what he loves doing. He became a concierge doctor in the Hamptons. It's currently on hiatus as series 2 just had it's mid-season finale on the 27th of August and will come back in January.

One of the regular characters is Boris(Campbell Scott), a rich mysterious German who gave Hank his job and a nice place to live in. Whenever I watch this series, I always wonder where I've seen this actor who plays Boris but too lazy to Google or Bing it. When I saw the finale last week, It suddenly came to me... he's that dying guy Julia Roberts cared for and fell in love with in the movie Dying Young. I remembered how much I love this movie, and not to mention, the soundtrack(some of the tracks have been used and reused by a few Hollywood movies and even Pinoy TV series).

 Campbell Scott in Dying Young (1991)

 in Royal Pains (2010)

Now here's one of the more familiar tracks:

 from an article in: guardian.co.uk
As reporters on the scene counted the survivors, the London-born anchor James Chau asked: "Has this damaged the international reputation of the Philippines?"

Here's the answer:

It's understandable that they worry about the safety of their citizens.

image from HK Security Bureau website. 

Once again, we're famous...

I love the Philippines but this is just embarassing and disappointing.

The Social Network

The official trailer of this certain "Facebook movie" has been out for a few weeks now. The film is about how a young university student became a billionaire after coming up with the idea of the now famous social networking site. I love the choice of music (Creep by Radiohead) but there's really nothing promising about this trailer. I don't know how the audience will be attracted and be persuaded to actually go and see it. Oh well, I hope a lot of people watch the movie... what? with over 500 Million users? it will be sad if it didn't become a box office hit.

official movie site: 500MillionFriends.com

While waiting for September...

It's a bit boring when TV in the States is on its summer hiatus. It means no new episodes of Glee, How I Met Your Mother, Modern Family, House, The Big Bang Theory, and even Gossip Girl. All these shows start new seasons in September.

For now, check these out:

Royal Pains, season 2:

 True Blood, season 3:

And if you like Gossip Girl, you might like Pretty Little Liars too:

One of the lead stars is Shay Mitchell who is born to a Filipino mother and Irish father.

 Doesn't she look a bit like Sarah Geronimo?

Literary Mash-ups

I know how vampires have invaded our pop culture with the growing fan base of  Edward Cullen, Damon and Stefan Salvatore, and Bill Compton but these?

What are they doing to our classic literature?

Disclaimer: of course... I don't own these pictures.

Usher! One more time...

I've seen Usher perform live and I don't mind going to his concert again, even though I'm not so crazy about the Here I Stand album. I think My Way and Confessions are the best albums he ever released. I am yet to listen to all the tracks in the latest album Raymond v Raymond. 

When he had the Truth tour in the UK back in '04, my sister and I made sure we didn't miss it.

Now, 6 years and 2 albums later, I'm gonna have the chance to see him perform live again as he is having a concert here in Manila in July 9.

My telephone! M-m-my telephone!

Cellphones, mobile phones, who does not own at least one? Kids as young as 13 or maybe even 10 have mobile phones. The very first cellphone that I had was a second hand Bosch:

it was previously owned by my brother and he sold it to me when he upgraded io a new one. This was in 1999 and back then, you buy a phone, it will be in use for at least a year or maybe more. Now, I don't know what happened, I can't believe I've changed phones this much:

I'm sure there are a few more that I've forgotten. The cycle was buy, sell, buy, and so on... i realize now how much I could have saved.
The best phone I've had, so far: The HTC Hero

The things I love about this phone: the pre-installed apps(twitter, facebook, youtube); when you view your contacts, you can see their social network updates; GPS; android OS; SMS threaded view

Full specs here.

My niece accidentally broke my no-camera-single band-no-bluetooth samsung 2nd(more like back-up) phone recently, so I have this coming next week:

and I hope the madness ends here... well at least for now and the next few years.