Friday, March 23, 2007

The Many Paths of Possibilities

Lately, I have been browsing Friendster during my free time. Looking for old friends and familiar faces in the midst of the ocean of faces. My high school friends, my secondary school friends, and even my elementary school friends. And of course, my friends (and ex-friends) in Canada. I am not proud to say it, but there are some people I could do without.

But there are others who I thought would be my close friends in the past. I knew them as girlfriends of my friend, friends of my brother, senior students who almost graduated, etc. I knew them briefly, hoping that we would develop a friendship. But communications stopped, and without knowing it, they are no longer a part of my life, neither I am a part of theirs.

To these people, I am a mere acquaintance now. I am not regretting my choices, but looking at the friendster pictures gives me a glimpse of what could've been. Have you ever felt like that?

Friday, March 9, 2007

The Three Investigators

Thanks to the Jupiter Jones look-alike, I was reminded to the Three Investigators. Believe it or not, even though the title of the series was "Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators", Alfred Hitchcock was NOT the author. What a big surprise!

Anyway, I went and bid for a lot of 30 Three Investigators books. I haven't read them in a loooooong time (and never in English before), so I'm sure I will be enjoying these books very much. I still remember the terror I felt when I first read "The Terror Castle" book (the first in the series). Hopefully I won't be feeling that scared now that I am all grown up. ^_^

Beauty and the Beast

Yesterday, I went to watch my friend Jason's high school musical, "Beauty and the Beast". It was such FUN!!! They are pretty good for high school students. Granted, they could use more singing lessons, but the energy and the enthusiasm made up for their shortcomings.

The belle was really expressive. The beast was really really grumpy and awkwardly behaved (which suited the character very much). Gaston was skinny but the self-esteem he exuded would make you believe he was the best man in the world. I always envy this character. He gets to do all the fun songs. Plus, he was always one head taller than anyone else in the play. His sidekick, LeFou was wonderfully played. As a plus, this guy sang better than Gaston. The three silly girls were really really silly (and very beautiful... I can see why Gaston wouldn't want to end his "rendezvous" even after his planned-wedding).

Lumiere had a mix of Indian-French accent. Clogsworth reminded me of Jupiter Jones (don't ask why... he just did). For those who did not spend their youth reading, Jupiter Jones was the head of the
Three Investigators. Babette was really carefree and flirtatious throughout the show. The Castle Company (diningwares) were hilarious. They all had this big silly grin on their face. The napkins danced gracefully. Others danced comically, which made it doubly interesting. Have I mentioned that Jason was the soup bowl? He looked so cute wearing the costume (and a big smile, of course!). And what a surprise when the Salt and one of the dinnerware came out to play flute and violin to accompany the song "Beauty and the Beast". Wow...!!

I went to a professionally staged "Beauty and the Beast" back in January. Their singing and power was better, but in terms overal enthusiasm and energy level, these high school casts did a much better job. I can still hear them sing, "No one hits like Gaston; Matches wits like Gaston; In a spitting match nobody spits like Gaston... No one plots like Gaston; Takes cheap shots like Gaston; Plans to persecute harmless crackpots like Gaston... Who has brains like Gaston? Entertains like Gaston? Who can make up these endless refrains like Gaston?"

Thursday, March 1, 2007

Interesting Miscellaneous

This week I stumbled upon several interesting sites, and I thought they were worth sharing. Here they are:

- How to fold T-Shirt in 1 easy step (Japanese) (English)

- Verizon pisses off a physicist customer

- Modern contemporary design archives

- A directory of wonderful things (blog)

- Science, art, politics and technology, the way (this guy) sees it...

- interesting cartoon (about science, etc)

- Visualizing the Web with Google