Pretty much gave up on Multiply

Just thought I'd have this announcement for my friends who still are in this network.  I've pretty much given up on Multiply after a lot of the issues with its interface and uploading systems.

For those who still want to keep tabs of my updates, you can find them in the following blogs:

Daily updates, my ongoing 365 Days of Geeky Happiness, general rants. camwhoring and geekiness can be found in my main blog:
The Garapata Can Speak

http://garapata.blogspot.com

Insight on my geeky gay life, geek gamerwood, discussions on LGBT topics, and other rainbow colored topics can be found in my gay blog:

Blame it on the Rain, Bro

http://blameitontherainbro.blogspot.com

My ongoing (and almost done!) online comic Diliman.

http://dilimancomic.blogspot.com

Our ongoing internet show on everything geeky and crazy:  Fandom Live!
http://www.fandom-live.com

And for everything else geeky in the Philippines, including The Blog! 

the official blog of the Fandom Live! show

http://www.newworlds.ph/

So, just head to those links when you want to keep in touch!
And lastly, there's always Facebook.

Hear from you!

Vote for Sweetie now!

Please vote for SWEETIE!

Hey everyone! The Victoria Court Director's Cut Challenge has finally opened the page for voting!You can visit the page and check out all the short films that are in the contest.

Do come to this page and vote for Sweetie, if you like it! Thank you!

http://www.victoriacourt.biz/shortfilm.php

If you really want to help me out, do spread the word around and ask for more people to vote for it!

[Sweetie] and [Muse] update!

[Sweetie] and [Muse] update!

Due to issues with Youtube itself, the rules on how the winner shall be chosen have been changed.  A webpage shall be put up showing all the existing finalist entries.  Views are NO LONGER the key factor in determining who will win in the event.  

Instead, a second page shall soon be online where one can vote for their favorite film.  

This early, I want you all to know that I am very grateful for the support and passion you have all showed in helping my film get noticed by more and more people.  Once the webpage is up, I promise to inform you all as soon as possible what it is so that you can all vote for both [Sweetie] and [Muse].

Thank you so much for everything.
I can only promise that win or lose, this will not be the last of short film work you've seen from me.

Watch my two short films!

I am calling out to all of you for help!  I recently joined the Victoria Court Director's Cut Challenge.

Two of the entries have become finalists and now it is all up to getting the most number of views to win!

Please help me win by watching my films (daily if you have the time!  but at least once is more than enough).  All views from today til the end of April are being counted.

Even better, feel free to share this to other friends, or reposting it in your blog, and inviting them to watch too.

Thank you so much for taking time to help me out.

The game is on! Views are now being counted! 

"Sweetie..." a short film

A young man enjoys the beauty and tranquility of Venice with his sweetie.

http://vcsweetie.tk/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeZXpDIRq40

directed, written and produced by tobie abad

cast: adrian arcega
editor: dekya

music: kevin macleod

"Muse"

What if what you've been searching for has been right in front of you all along?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKfMCZAP65w

directed by adrian arcega

cast: tobie abad, macy a

music: perf de castro

Watch my short film!

Watch "Sweetie..." my short film!

Allow me to invite you all to watch "Sweetie..." my short film entry to the Director's Cut Challenge of Victoria Court.   Do check it out and share the link around people!   Lemme know what you think!

Watch it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeZXpDIRq40

Tom's Birthday 2010

Celebrated Tom's birthday party at O bar.

New Beginnings and Pamilya Egg

Gray all abound, the night was full of color and fun. Three shows too! (and yes, me in the stupid wig since they played Dancing Queen.)

Friendships grow. Commitments are reinforced. And ultimately, to quote Jason Mraz, "Love love love..."

Day 029 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

I have yet to wet my toes on Murakami.  Thankfully, Rocky has an ample supple of books for me to eventually dive into.  I just have to get the courage to start.

I mean, psychic prostitutes.  Really.  That is pure win!

Pig Adoption - Thank you Bambi!

Fellow Pig lover Bambi contacted me not too long ago asking me if I wanted to adopt some of the pigs from her very expansive collection. Needing to generate more shelf space, Bambi had chosen to give up some of her babies for adoption. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of these little ones.

Thank you so much Bambi!

So It is Sonny

After not seeing the doofus for so long, I was happy to see Sonny again at O bar with the usual gang. Lots of catch up kuwentuhan that night. More amusingly was the fact I was supposed to get back the backpack he borrowed, but I totally forgot to get it from him before leaving.

Joining me that night was Niki of the Newworlds group.

Empty O

Had an O bar night where to our surprise, barely any other people showed up. So to keep the night fun, we ended up having an impromptu runway catwalk moment, as well as just chose to have fun. End result: More people started coming in and by the night's end, the place was almost packed as normal!

Take that, Chelu!

Really frustrated with Multiply today

Multiply has started to get really buggy.  Ever since they first tried to change the interface to look something similar to facebook/friendster, the site's services have been going downhill.  For a time, I had high hopes with photo uploading being easier here, as well as cross-posting to Facebook and Blogger.  But now, looking at how of my 365 Days of Geeky Happiness has been delayed by almost a week's worth of images, I am having my doubts.

Should I let go of this and just make it a virtual photoalbum?
Or do I make blogging here have a second chance?

What do you guys think?

Multiply Forces Me Away

been having huge problems uploading and the like right now.
going to stick to blogger for now.  :-(
Multiply!  Fix thyself soon enough please!

Day 018 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

The Far Side is one of those deceptively simple yet deceptively profound comics that I love reading.  It takes a lot of skill and craft to be able to make single panels have so much sense and depth.  More so when limited to a few words of text to carry both story and punchline in a single go.   

Fandom Live We:View 2012

After giving us Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, Roland Emmerich is back with 2012. Join Fandom Live as we review this movie that explores the possibility of the Mayan revelation about the "end of the world".

WATCH IT NOW!

Hosted by Tobie Abad. 2012

Copyright 2009 Centropolis Entertainment, Columbia Pictures

DISCLAIMER: We don't own any of the movies or music featured in this episode. Movies and music featured are properties of their respective production outfits. We are not affiliated with any of them and we were not paid to endorse the movies mentioned or music played. We are just fans, we don't earn from this. Please do not sue us, we don't have any money.

Day 017 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

When work gives a breather, or life hands you a short period of boredom, one has to have games at hand to pass the time.  My thanks goes to the creators of Frozen Throne, Braid, Torchlight, Plants versus Zombies and Zuma's Revenge for making these fun games.

Day 016 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

Among the many things that I love and of the many shows that I really enjoy, few have been as enjoyable as Lost.  A good friend of mine gave me this book not too long ago.  Until now, I still find myself reading it.

Day 015 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

There have been many comics that I have enjoyed.  Today I want to feature one of them which I really loved reading.  The Legionnaires (as well as the Legion of Superheroes) has inspired many of the rpgs that I have run.

Day 014 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

The LEGO app for the iphone is just fun fun fun, allowing you to take a photograph, then transform it into something you can build with lego bricks. 

Get the app here.

Seven Red Things

I was recently tagged in a meme to post 7 red things that can be found at the Sietch Creare.  My good friend Putingtikbalang contacted me and told me I had to follow two simple rules:

Two simple rules:

• Post photos of 7 red things in your home. 
• Tag 7 people to do the meme.
  

So here they are.  The seven red things I decided to take pictures of to fulfill this meme.


1) Rocky's Red Chucks
Got these for Rocky as a Christmas present.  To my knowledge, this is his second pair of chucks and he specifically wanted a red pair with good reason.  I'm just happy to be able to get it for him.  Merry Christmas Rocky!


2) Tetris Magnets!
While they aren't wholly red (at least not all the pieces are), the L-shaped Tetris piece is red, so that should count.  Every now and then I find new ways to configure the pieces on the refrigerator.  This last time I decided to try and create words with them.  I'd like to think I did well, even if the "e" is kinda forcing it.


3) Lots and lots of 10-sided dice
Gamers like myself need dice to play roleplaying games.  In my case, being a Storyteller for Whitewolf Gaming Studios games, ten-sided dice is the die of choice.  A large number of the dice I have collected over the years are red ones. 


4) An official red Google mug
Yep.  Rocky owns this treasure though, so don't bother trying to beg me to give it away.  This mug is so precious, Rocky doesn't let anyone use it.  Thankfully, we have a bunch of other mugs, some from Emman and Apple as well as another set from Nina.


5) Here at Sietch Creare, Rocky and I own a combined DVD collection of over 900 titles.  Among the many titles we own, we have a number of red ones.  I decided to highlight Frank Herbert's Children of Dune as the red DVD of choice for the meme.


6) M-Cups!
One of the other highly coveted treasures here in Sietch Creare is the set of measuring cups that are molded in the shape of traditional Russian matryoshkas.  We have yet to have guests who did not want to take them home with them.  Rocky got these as a present from his Archer.


7) Bench Red Seamless Boxer Briefs
Yep.  Mine.   Comfy and supportive at the same time.  Not to mention, makes me look damn sexy when I am wearing them.  (Or so I have been told!)

Now I'm supposed to tag seven other people to do the same thing.   But since I have a thing against chain-letter-esque spreading of stuff, I'd rather just invite anyone out there who read this post to do the same and most their own meme.  Don't forget to email me the link so I can check it out.

Day 013 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

One of my trainees gave me a gift: a stone keychain Egg with the letters AGA on it.  Cute!  Although when I first read it, I read it as ASA...

Hmm.

Does this mean they read my blog?
Egad!

Day 012 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

I will forever be grateful to a former ABS-CBN Global officemate whose name I can't recall for giving me a copy of Katamari Damacy so many years ago.  Now, my addiction to rolling the darn thing continues in I Love Katamari on my iphone.

Local Distributors Love Uglifying Movie Posters

Many say one of the inherent flaws of the Filipino is the crab-mentality we practice.  Too often Pinoys pull fellow Pinoys down out of spite or envy.  In my view, worse than crab mentality is the belief many Pinoys have that we just are never going to be good enough or smart enough compared to everyone else out there in the world.  And this cannibalistic mindset sadly has become very apparent in how local distributors love to dumb stuff down thinking we will only appreciate things if they do so.

Mother Needs to Feed.

It is a sad but true fact. 

Some local movie distributors either believe the Filipino audience is way too stupid or too dumb to truly appreciate a movie and try to make their posters "better" in the mislead belief their "artistic ability" will make the movie more interesting.

I complained loudly about this some time ago when Pioneer defaced the Silent Hill movie into a horrible mess of chicken wire fences, monster zombies and going as far as giving the lead a gun. 

Now, more movies are suffering the same stupid treatment.

Ethan Hawke's new movie DAYBREAKERS is one of them. 


The movie has mankind and vampirekind in a new world with humans being herded as livestock for the vampires.  The first poster was a teaser on the vampire angle.  Simple but it works.  The second poster wanted to touch on the fact that in many ways the plot reminds one of Matrix.  So in the second poster, we have a much more sci-fi feel, which frankly makes me smile.  It homages the feel of Matrix and injects it with a dose of Gattaca.


Some GENIUS out there saw these and thought, "Oh the Filipino cannot appreciate too much beauty and intelligence in the posters.  We have to help them understand it is a vampire movie."  So what we end up with is this horrible mess:
 Seriously, WHAT THE FRAK is wrong with them.  Why on EARTH is this piece of infantile photoshopping the standing poster for what actually sounds like a cool original vampire movie? 

It gets worse, my friends.

Heath Ledger's last film is soon to be released.  Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a spectacularly mind-bending film which Heath Ledger was working on at the time of his untimely demise.  In order to complete the movie, Colin Farrel, Jude Law and Johnny Depp were also tapped to portray the character originally played by Heath Ledger.  So part of the confusion may lie in the fact that four guys portray a single role in the movie.

Some of the earlier posters for the film were vague, but still aesthetically attractive.



The later posters tried to address the many roles and actors while still hinting at the surreal atmosphere of the film.



But of course, the local distrubtors still felt "they could do a better job."  This is their horrific masterpiece:


Seriously.  Can someone out there who actually KNOWS the people behind these poster changes please drown whoever was in charge of these changes?!?!  The Filipino deserves better.  Seriously better.  This is the same audience that can appreciate movies like Schindler's List and has numerous fandoms held dear to them. 

WE ARE NOT TOO DUMB TO APPRECIATE THE ORIGINAL POSTERS.

And no, we don't want our international films being made to look like local ones either.  So please, just stop.  Give us back our better posters.

Day 011 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness

While i was tempted to post instead pictures of the day we spent at the spa relaxing, it might be better to keep some "happiness" to ourselves.  BWahahah!

Day 010 of 365 Days of Geeky Happiness