Continue reading “Shuffle the Music #3”In the motions and the things that you say
Modest Mouse
It all will fall, fall right into place
As fruit drops, flesh it sags
Everything will fall right into place
24 Songs
Some nights I wish I lived right at the heart of a warm city with a 24/7 coffee shop in which I could easily meet someone who’d be willing to keep me company at 3 in the morning while both of us struggle to sleep — too bad my life isn’t a mumblecore movie, ‘no?
I’ve tried melatonin pills, chamomile tea, mindful meditation — wala talaga e. I just can’t sleep, or at least not during the normal hours when most people go to sleep. Nakakabaliw!
Anyway, it’s currently past 3 in the morning and I don’t think I will be sleeping anytime soon so I might as well do this tag that I found on tumblr. Not as exciting as meeting the love of my life and walking along the streets of a city in slumber but, yeah, this will do.
Continue reading “24 Songs”On ‘Hercules’ (1997)
Disney’s Hercules begins with a quintet of Muses singing about the origin of the cosmos and calling this tale “the gospel truth.” The phrase is repeated all throughout the opening anthem — an interesting use of Judeo-Christian jargon, as if hinged on the popular misconception that Greek and Roman myths are akin to ancient religion.
The movie is peppered with similar familiar tropes. As the film progresses, it becomes more apparent how Disney traverses the predictable route. Instead of craftily unknotting the intricacies of the legend of Heracles, Disney dilutes a celebrated story and streamlines it into an easily marketable, family-oriented flick.
Classical myth does not necessarily constitute religion, yet these two concepts are still commonly interlinked. The shared jargon alone (e.g. “gods,” “temples”) makes it easy for people to associate them with each other, rendering religion a convenient template to use when retelling ancient myths.
Continue reading “On ‘Hercules’ (1997)”On ‘Indak’ (2019)
“We don’t want to be a copycat of Step Up,” director Paul Alexei Basinilio was quoted saying during a VIVA Convention prior to Indak’s release. “If you noticed in the baybayin translation…that’s indak. We specifically wrote this because we wanted to promote Filipino culture.”
Basinilio presented an interesting causality — to use baybayin is to promote Filipino culture — and some would argue that this was a rather misinformed reach.
Baybayin is just one of the many ancient scripts in the Philippines and it was mainly used by the Tagalogs*. To imply that baybayin is representative of an entire nation therefore reveals a seeming obliviousness to certain nuances surrounding the discourse on Filipino culture. Even using the phrase “Filipino culture” alone already invites further discussion; it suggests the existence of a monolithic (read: singular) identity which may not be true for a country as widely diverse as the Philippines.
Continue reading “On ‘Indak’ (2019)”December
I baked chocolate chip cookies on Christmas Eve. I also ate turkey and spaghetti, I drank wine, and then I watched a movie before going to sleep at around 4am on Christmas Day.
My sleep cycle is still whacked. Luckily I don’t go back to school until next week so I can go to sleep whenever I want. Overall I feel much better now than I did last month.
I still have to go to the clinic to get another blood test done. Sometime in December I did what the doctors call a Lung Function Test, and the technician told me that the results do not suggest I have asthma (“but it doesn’t completely rule it out,” she said). This new blood test will determine if my seasonal shortness of breath is caused, not by asthma, but by allergies.
Continue reading “December”November
November was rough on my health. I started taking pills to get my circadian rhythm under control but the meds didn’t help at all. The side effects even made things worse, actually.
There was one time when I had to wake my parents up in the middle of the night because my chest hurt so bad and I felt like I was having a heart attack. I drank water, I tried meditating and breathing to a certain pattern but none of them calmed the pain. I told my parents I couldn’t sleep and when Ma gave me a hug, I bawled like a baby. It was bad.
But that was two weeks ago and I’m obviously still alive, so it probably wasn’t a heart attack. I still get those chest pains though — I’ve been having them for quite some time now.
Continue reading “November”Se7en Things
Earlier I worked on a lab report for AI and another lab report for DIP. Tonight I plan to work on yet another lab shit for Machines, write some content for a raket, and review my notes for complex variable math — ang sipag lang e, ‘no?
The reason why I’m grinding through all this acads shit is because I have an upcoming electromagnetics exam next Tuesday. I’m currently on bagsak standing for EM so acing the next exam is crucial if I want to pass the class. Bakit ba kasi ang hirap-hirap ng EM??
Continue reading “Se7en Things”