Please see my other blog for my take on the new X-files movie, coming to Philippine cinemas on August 13. Update: Why you should ignore the critics, show faith, and go watch the film.
I was watching one of the classic episodes (War of the Coprophages, Season 3 Episode 12) of the acclaimed TV series and thought to share some memorable quotes that reflect why the cult following of this show is probably made up of geeks and nerds and the dour and seriously serious individuals. Beautiful geeks, though, if I may surmise.
Mulder: The development of our cerebral cortex has been the greatest achievement of the evolutionary processes. Big deal. While allowing us the thrills of intellect or the pangs of self-consciousness, it is all too often overruled by our inner, instinctive brain - the one that tells us to react, not reflect, to run, rather than ruminate. Maybe we have gone as far as we can go and the next advance, whatever that may be - will be made by beings we create ourselves, using our own technology. Life forms we can design and program not to be ultimately governed and constricted by the rules of survival. Or perhaps that step forward had already been achieved on another planet by organisms that had a billion years head start on us. If these beings ever visited us, would we recognize what we were seeing? And upon catching sight of us, would they react in anything but horror at seeing such mindless, primitive, hideous creatures?
Dr. Bambi Berenbaum: Eat, sleep, defecate, procreate. That’s all they [insects] do. That’s all we do, but at least insects don’t kid themselves that it’s anything more than that.
Mulder: It took forever for me to realize that it was no leaf.
Scully: A praying mantis?
Mulder: Yeah, I had a praying mantis epiphany and, as a result, I screamed. Not, not a girly scream but the scream of someone being confronted by some before unknown monster that had no right existing on the same planet I inhabited. Did you ever notice how a praying mantis’ head resembles an alien’s head? The mysteries of the natural world were revealed to me that day but instead of being astounded I was repulsed.
Scully: Mulder, are you sure it wasn’t a girly scream?
Life, that is. And a lot of people who live it. After finishing the entire first season of David Duchovny’s Californication, I felt that I needed to watch something cute and chaste that I’m only too happy to find a DVD of Disney’s The Little Mermaid among my things. But I changed my mind while I’m placing the disc on the DVD player and decided to sit in front of the computer instead to write this (I would have written the “s” word that also means something gross at the end of that sentence but that would just be a hangover from the episodes filled with the “s” s and the “f”s and I’ll probably regret it later). So it’s about a troubled writer who hasn’t been writing for a while, picking up girls from every corner while trying to win back his one great love and be a good father to their teenaged daughter, failing in every step of the way. Consider this: He didn’t marry the woman he loves but when she got engaged to another man, he abruptly offered to fly with her to Vegas, look for some Elvis look-alike to marry them inside a Casino or somewhere. He is careless with his life and deals like it’s no more than a game of blackjack, all the while declaring that “I’m a writer; that’s what I do.” As anyone who’s done a lot of mistakes, he knows that he needs to get things right because time is not on his side and the slots of opportunities leading to his redemption is running out. Admittedly, it’s not a show for everyone. There are lots of controversial scenes involving sexual situations and foul language that if Hank Moody will have to pay up for each of them (as he does whenever he curse in front of his daughter), the show will never make profit. Get over the squeamishness and you might find that this one’s a spunky, smart, and entertaining tale of how damaged some people can be and yet still be a good person when it matters.
I’ve once mentioned about this classic paradox:
“What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?”
Technically, one must say it never happens. Those two adjectives cancel each other out. But by now most of you have already watched The Dark Knight, and you know that The Joker made use of that exact description to describe the way he and Batman clashes.
It’s also like Mulder and Scully and the conspiracy, Nadal and Federer, or adolescence and acne. Bad analogy. But Nadal is about to win Toronto Masters (sorry Keifer) and looks unstoppable even on hardcourts. Well, as TheFed so succinctly said, “It’s not the end of the world.” And although I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I’m losing a bit of interest in watching tennis now that Federer’s toiling, I must say it’s a good thing now that I don’t have cable TV to tempt me to watch Nadal take all the glory.
Coming home from work tonight, I went to take out some food at McDonald’s first. Upon leaving the store, I came upon a group of people, my usual Saturday badminton “buddies,” (the quotes because I actually only see them regularly in the courts but very seldom mix with them during play) and one of them asked me why I didn’t play that night. I can only smile and feel bad inside. Saturday without badminton feels odd and, quite frankly, a little incomplete. I’ve become a creature of habit! It’s been a while since I last passed up an opportunity to play hours of badminton for the weekend play-all-you-can fee of P80. But the recently concluded office tournament took a toll on me - I had a bad flu two days before the tourney and played through my first game without so much as a warm up or stretching exercise because I arrived late (by the time I’ve changed into the uniform, my partner and our opponents are already in the court). Anyway, days after, I haven’t gotten back my eagerness to be active and I’m still feeling lethargic. I can only wish to go back to the gym, hoping a few more hours each week on the treadmill or ellipticals will boost my energy. Maybe if I’ll win that Nike shoes auction, I can start thinking about making room in my schedule for the gym. Hay, I’m blabbering again and making this blog an extended Twitter.
In two things:
1. That despite the general consensus that The X-Files: I Want to Believe tanks, I’m still going to enjoy it and my inner X-phile will be satisfied even if nobody else will turn up at the cinemas beside myself, and possibly my two sisters and onyxx too. Roger Ebert is the only established critic to give the movie a thumbs up, and even he is now increasingly being said to be getting “soft.” Believe me, I’ll still watch it in the theater and will most probably be happy about it, based on all the spoilers I’ve read (I can already picture the whole movie in my mind by now). It will open in Philippine cinemas on August 14.
2. That Roger Federer will win the U.S. Open despite him almost surely losing his no. 1 ranking before the year ends. His most recent loss at the Rogers Cup (Toronto) this week naturally brings into question not only the end of his dominance but also his state of mind. Can he recapture the brilliance (or did his foes really just improved while he remained stagnant?) that just a year ago was so unquestionable and sublime? I only hope he’ll show heart and be a true champion, no. 1 or not; lately he’s just being surly and in denial.
What’s another word for lackluster? Never mind.
I’ve written about a musical revue from Jason Robert Brown, Songs for a New World.
Here’s the good news: This musical event will be staged next month and you are all invited to watch. Details below:
Sprint Productions and 9 Works, Inc., invites you to watch SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD, an Off-Broadway musical by Jason Robert Brown featuring your favorite theater actors: Carla Guevarra-Laforteza, Caisa Borromeo, Felix Rivera, Anna Santamaria, and Harold Cruz, directed by Robbie Guevarra. August 24, Sunday, 8 pm, at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. Please contact 0906-3315961 for details.
Here’s a link to my favorite song from the repertoire, Stars and the Moon.
Totally not in keeping with my promise to self that I’ll try to have better sleeping habits, after all that talk about health and high blood pressure, clogged arteries, and EDTA chelation, I’m now still up at 2.30 am; eating a piece of apple I found in the refrigerator, which houses nothing else but that and a bottle of water; listening to Sara Bareilles; and thinking about the badminton game tomorrow. I’m also thinking about breakfast, which depending on what time I’ll wake up, will most probably be a cup of coffee and a bowl of oatmeal. I hate the taste of that. Seriously. But it’s so easy to prepare and the health benefits are well published, so I’m trying to substitute it for my usual fastfood breakfast. A friend and I have been talking about being hypochondriac, me regarding being hypertensive and she regarding being diabetic (and still another friend ran to a clinic yesterday out of fear of urinary tract infection) that eating well would seem to be the wisest thing to do. And yet when the three of us go to the office cafeteria and each order our sizzling plates of liempo, adobo, or porkchop, we’ll all agree that there’s no way we can stay away from all these fatty foods all at once. Moderation is the key, although sometimes that can also get hard. Well, wholegrain oats are supposed to flush out toxins and help unclog arteries, so I’m psyching myself about making it a regular part of my diet. Better start early before more drastic measures, such as EDTA oral chelation, become necessary.
A coach at our “home court” in Paranaque once advised me to bring Pedialyte (a drink designed to help rehydrate babies with diarrhea) during a whole-day tournament, along with plenty of bananas. Coupled with sound advises of “bring several extra shirts, don’t allow sweat to dry up in your body, don’t drink sodas, don’t sit around but keep on moving to keep the body warmed up, and don’t eat too much during the lunch break,” I figured there’s nothing wrong with trying to do exactly as I was told.
Now, bananas are a fine source of fuel energy and aids in quick energy release. That’s why you’ll see them in abundance in sports events. They are also a good source of potassium, a mineral involved in proper muscle contraction. So, especially during tournaments when players tend to engage in more intense games and matches, and for considerably longer periods of time, food aids such as bananas are a must.
My friends actually thought it’s funny that I kept on buying Pedialyte whenever I join badminton tournaments. I always joked that I get a huge psychological boost knowing that I’m always fresh and rehydrated with my “sports drink.” It’s actually a bit pricey, about P190 for a 1-liter bottle, but I only mix it with my water anyway so one bottle lasts the whole day. The good thing about Pedialyte is that it is an excellent source of electrolytes, to replenish what is lost by the body through perspiration and also to help prevent muscle cramping, which I’m a bit prone to. You might be surprised to know that although it isn’t being marketed for that specific purpose, Pedialyte is now making an increasing appearance in the locker rooms of international athletes.
Speaking of athletes, four of the highest paid women in sports turned out to be from the tennis circuit (in order): Maria Sharapova, Serena and Venus Williams, and the newly retired Justine Henin. Number 5 is golfer Michelle Wie.
Between transferring from one computer to another at work (my shiny, brand new one doesn’t have the software installations I need), which after two months has become a really irritating and tiresome routine, and reading/editing scholarly articles I can barely grasp the point of, I’m only a few agonizing days away from taking a much needed trip home to my hometown. God knows I need the break, and I don’t mean my two-day absence last week because of a bad flu; conditions at work is fast becoming dangerously close to being pointless; not that reading about things like cancer research, mesothelioma, gene therapies, and the likes, every single day, is exciting at any level. Still, comfort zone’s a hard thing to get out of. Here’s hoping a little traveling will boost my energies a bit.
The power went out about an hour ago and I totally forgot what I was supposed to be writing about. Because I was alone at our apartment, and generally not a fan of total darkness, I rummaged through the dark to search for the flashlight or some candles and matchsticks. Panicking a little, I stumbled over several things I left on the floor and cursed myself for not having the sense of arranging my things better. I think I need more space. Or a maybe I just need to clean up the place and start getting rid of things that I don’t really need. I wish I can trade my desktop for a laptop. Computer desks and tables, compact as they come these days, still take up a considerable amount of space in a small place like ours. Anyway, I’m just glad the power came back on in less than an hour, just before I fell asleep with a lighted candle beside my bed.
