Last Friday, me and my friends went somewhere in Manila to buy pirated DVDs. We went there through riding several public transportations — 1 long Jeep ride and 1 verrry long ride of the LRT to Manila. I saw different schools while on the LRT ride, most of them I’ve only heard of/seen just recently and yeah, we passed by College of St. Benilde (represent! ) as well. Friends were making a big deal when we passed by Vito Cruz station, I wonder why? When we got to our destination (Carriedo stop), the DVD shop or shall I say HEAVEN on EARTH (for DVD pirates, haha!) was just in front of the LRT exit! I thought we would walk farther to somewhere hot but paradise was just a few steps away. (Are you confused what does the Evan Almighty poster got to do with my post? Read through the whole entry )

Unfortunately we didn’t shopped for DVDs when we got there, yet. We ate lunch first at KFC! It was super far from the LRT station so we had to walk a thousand miles just to get there, few more steps from the KFC branch we’ll be in Quiapo church already. KFC was full of people, God! I’m not claustrophobic but I just don’t like crowds (yet it makes me wonder why I go to concerts a lot), and lines for that matter. Anyway, we got to eat and had a good time. After that we looked for the infamous camera stores in Quiapo aka Hidalgo, we found it and I was able to look at DSLRs, for only 5 minutes.. Haha. My brother and my other friend went to look for music instruments on our way back to DVD heaven.

I bought a lot of DVDs when we got to DVD heaven, lol. You gotta hand it to the Chinese people for doing such a great job at pirating this stuff. I was looking around at first and was astonished when I found some rare movies such as Scarface, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and The Shining on their racks, I grabbed them at first sight and had them tested. And they already cracked Blu-ray discs to DVD-9 format, or maybe I’m wrong, but the quality is superb and just amazingly clear! All in all I bought 7 DVDs: Scarface, The Shining, Evan Almighty, American Gangster (this is for Alex, aww yeah I’m such a nice sister), Across the Universe, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Borat.

Two days later after that, I decided to watch one of the DVDs I bought and picked to start on Evan Almighty. I loved the first movie, Bruce Almighty so I definitely expected to enjoy the 2nd one. And I did! But I didn’t expect the movie on teach me something that I’ve never known before. As cheesy it may sound, a comedy movie made me realize something about God.

As the comedic scenes rolled in, I was laughing my ass off on every laughable scene as much as possible. I especially liked the “SHEEEEP!” scene. The whole movie is really funny, may not be to you, but it is to me. Anyway, if you’ve seen the movie, do you remember the scene when Evan’s wife took the kids and settled somewhere because they felt that Evan is going crazy because of the whole ark ordeal?? Then a scene rolls in where Evan’s wife and the kids are watching the news while eating a meal at a bar and she wanted to order something and God (disguised as the store waiter) talks to her? He says this to Evan’s wife…

Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?

Then everything just started to make sense to me! Very, very true! The existence of having trials in our life makes sense to me now. We pray to Him to ask for something that will bring benefit to our life, and then a time comes that we get faced with different obstacles (or trials) for a period of time that will make us work hard in order to survive and conquer that situation. In the end, we receive a result that’s similar to what we asked Him but most of the time we don’t notice it. So, as I see it, we can’t put every “miraculous” event that happens to our life on Him, but we should give credit to ourselves as well. Things happen for a reason, as the saying goes. He wants us to believe in our strength that we can accomplish something with our own skill and strength and not be dependent on the Higher being that is God.

The main character in the movie wanted to “change the world”, and he prayed for it. Next day he is chosen to build an ark to “save” the people from the trouble that’s going to happen. Crazy as that sounds, he still continued to do it and in the end, he made a BIG change! The difference with Evan compared to Bruce, is he used the opportunity wisely than Bruce because he just abused it and played with it (people who saw the first “…Almighty” movie would know!) So the next time you find yourself in trouble, don’t be put down by it, think of it as an opportunity. Oh noes, late realization for me, no? I don’t go to Church that often! Sorry na.

And today, I watched Across The Universe. Confusing at first, cause it’s the second musical movie I’ve watched after HSM but as you watch throughout the movie it’s really, really good. I need to watch it again though so I can understand it fully. The singing is just superb, especially Dana Fuch’s singing. Which brings me to this question: Why isn’t she that popular?!?! Mixed emotions felt through the movie, I say. And, ooh lala, Jim Sturgess is ! *hint* He may just be on the next edition of my layout, haha!

[edit] I was tagged for the 2nd time now. Thanks Isha and Cathrene[/edit]
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I wonder where Michael Jackson is right now? For sure he’s still alive but he hasn’t released any new material lately, right? I was surfing YouTube this afternoon and the idea of watching Michael Jackson vids came to my mind and so I watched his videos, not all but most of the my favorites. The feeling I experienced while watching his videos can’t be exactly put to words but most of the time blurred childhood memories came to my mind while watching his videos. One of them was the time I would just get my dad’s DVD of HIStory and then pop it on his DVD player, sit down and enjoy MJ’s music served in front of me. Yes, without a doubt I am a Michael Jackson fan and that album cover you see is one of my favorite albums of him. The album cover design is just so infinitely interesting (ha, yeah that line’s stolen from an Incubus song!).

We all know how the media ruined him as a person (Making a big deal of his Vitiligo skin disease and also the multiple nose surgeries he had that eventually ruined the look of his face. Sorry man, just had to let that out.) and as an artist (Who can ever forget the Michael Jackson’s a child molester issue years ago?), but truth remains he’s still THE King of Pop. Hahaha, none of today’s mainstream people and artists can get to his level. Up to recent time he still has fans (K, count me in), proven: read the comments on his videos at YouTube. He may be poppy and corny (I find his fashion sense on his earlier videos to be really really AWFUL) but his lyrics speaks a lot about the IMPORTANT issues of today. No one might have ever heard of his Earth Song, but I think it perfectly describes the current situation of our planet now. And to think this song was released more than 10 years ago (if I’m not mistaken?). Here’s the video and I strongly suggest that you watch it!

Now tell me, did it hit you to make a move to save mother earth?!?! No? Well you’re one tough person to crack.
I have a lot of favorite Michael songs and videos but then this post would get really embarrassing. Short and straight to the point, watch Michael Jackson videos when you REALLY have nothing to do. It won’t be a waste of time, I swear!

Aside from Michael Jackson, I also downloaded albums and watched videos of different pop artists today. Namely.. Mariah Carey, Atomic Kitten, Blue, Sugar Ray (Major LOL, Mark McGrath lives!), Alicia Keys (stuff from her when she was still new), LFO (I know right?? Do you still remember them!?), Janet Jackson, Jin (he’s the guy who sang “Learn Chinese”, dunno how many years ago.. I don’t do the math!), N*Sync and Backstreet Boys. And if you click on the links of the corresponding artist, it takes you a link to my fave vid/song from them, woohoo.

All I can say is… Pop music never gets old! I guess I’m just really sick and tired of listening to mainstream music now that most of them is just about sex, girls and money. Ok, most or some of the artists I mentioned at the top may have done music thats about sex, girls/boys and money but there’s just something about their “early music” that’s timeless and will keep you coming back and makes you prefer it than to their new material. Yes, most of these artist are POP artists, I didn’t bother to listen to any rock bands today because I just want to chill and relax, and this was the perfect remedy for my need.

As for the album downloads I did today, I downloaded 6 albums from different artists. Guess who? Haha, it’s quite obvious by just looking at the album covers. Ooh, Anna’s posting images now… of course, so the space won’t be wasted. Upped from Tinypic btw.

I haven’t listened to all of the songs except the ones on the new Mariah Carey album because I’m too lazy right now, by the way I think the title of her new album is COOL, ha! I’ve listened to one of PATD (yes, without the “!” now, they removed it) song and I don’t like that much but it’s okay maybe it’ll grow on me somehow. I was mad pissed when I found Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey’s discography at a torrent site only to find out that it doesn’t continue to download itself, the amount of ’seeds’ are not good enough. If you happen to be a torrent user, PLEASE seed the mentioned albums!! Hahaha, I want them all! I tried to be patient and went to Limewire to download the songs I like from their CDs and didn’t get so much luck. Now I’m getting thoughts on getting thoughts on buying these albums instead if I can’t manage to find a downloadable version of it online — HATE! I would only use the CD once and it’d be a waste. Who knows a GOOD torrent site? Specifically with old albums up for downloading, hehe.

BTW!! I received a question from Rachel:

ei anna, i know youre into photography, i just want to ask if you can help me in finding a good camera for a beginner like me? i just want sana a lomo cam but i don’t know which is good for a beginner. thanks

Love it, nice question! If you’re looking for a good camera (strictly) for Lomo photography, I suggest that you should get the Holga 120N. Check the site, there’s a 120N starter kit perfect for first timers. When I used to be interested in Lomo photography, I asked a friend what would be good to get as a beginner and he said I should get that. My interest in Lomo faded fast though and I never got to purchase one. I think they’re costy, especially with the films.

However, for digital photography naman, I don’t suggest going straight to EOS/DSLR immediately. Personally I would buy a point-and-shoot first and explore it, eventually master it then if I feel I need a better camera to suit my needs then it would be the time to go professional, getting a DSLR/SLR camera. Hope I helped!

Thanks guys for the comments regarding this layout, hehe, I super love it as well! Definitely one of my favorites. Link exchange people, please direct to my link exchange page no need to ask about it in my comment. I accept any (normal) site, s’long as you link me back we’re all good.

Tagged by Cerisse

1. Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
2. Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their ten things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose ten people to get tagged and list their names.
4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
Heh, rule breaking bitch. FREE TAG! I TAG ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ANSWER!

1. I’m hiding from Munster. Wow, what a “nice” codename for a crush. And yes that’s a FACT.
2. I go to Facebook every 20 minutes. It’s pretty sad, I know. It’s like waiting for something that’s never gonna come.
3. I don’t like our househelper’s cooking, it’s near the level of “I can’t stand it anymore”. So I’m not eating properly these past few days.
4. The only game I play on our PS2 is Tekken 4. The other Tekken games we have are busted, damn.
5. I’m sick of mainstream music, go me, I’m listening to old school music now.
6. I am NOT Chinese nor Japanese. Puro 1000% Filipino, y’all. Just sayin’! I sometimes get questions if I’m half Chinese or Jap and there’s the answer.
7. I’m never returning to Windows ever again. My mind is set, when I get rich I’m buying every Apple computer (of course I would wait till the ‘perfect’ computer is made).
8. I am still waiting for the perfect DSLR so that’s why I’m not buying one maybe even when I graduate, haha.
9. I like moreno guys. K, stfu, that’s too much information but hey that’s a fact. ROFLMAOBBQ.
10. I’m afraid of commitment. Bow.