“…there’s nothing unique about being a hero. Most people are heroes.”

This a quote from one of the characters of Winter Moon. It reminded me of a comment I made on Mang GB’s blog about how OFW’s are not really heroes. I was speaking in the selfish view of a single person who don’t have responsibilities to other people. Maybe out of bitterness as well. I do admire people who would stay in the Philippines to make a contribution there when they know they could make more money if they work in other countries. But I forgot that OFWs would endure dangerous and depressing situations so that their families can have food to eat, so that their children can go to school, so that if family members get sick they can buy medicine or they can go to the hospital. I forgot that my father had to be away from us for 20 years so that he can support us. I regret what I said. A personal rule of mine is not to generalize, we’re never sure where people are coming from.

I was looking for an old entry of what I said about a favorite movie, Batman Begins. I found it and all I said was, “and yeah batman begins enjoyed it very much”. Bwisit. Anyway, I recruited my younger brother to watch The Dark Knight with me tomorrow. It should be really good. What I loved about the first one was the dark atmosphere, right amount of special effects, detailed story and twists, good action and the scary villains. I say scary because they actually feel justified of what they plan to do, no remorse. I remember the old Batman movies and sometimes I would see them played in cable channels and…wala lang, pambata sila. And I almost forgot! I also love Batman Begins because of my favorite actor, papa Chris Bale. Love! hahaha. I’m definitely going to the movies tomorrow.

Edit: 7/22/08

Went and saw the The Dark Knight. And yea! It lived up to my expectations and more. I would watch it again just to pick up the details I missed - we were a minute or two late and about 2 hours into the movie my left contact lens fell off, imagine watching a movie with only one good eye. I should really go get my eyes checked and replace my lenses and get glasses. Anyway, let’s see if I can come up with things I like about the movie:

• the hero who isn’t always sure about his decisions but wants to do the right thing; I love the way Alfred knows and supports him
• the dual personality - the arrogant and rich playboy and the the brooding Batman
• there are special effects but it’s not overloaded with CGI. I loved the cinematography although I like the one from Begins better; it’s more visually dark.
• Heath Ledger’s Joker was disturbing. Another scary kind of villain - someone who has nothing to lose and just does what he does for the heck of it…psychopaths…
• Maggie’s Rachel seems more suited for the film. Katie Holmes was too cute. Maggie fit the more serious, more adult look and acting for the film.
• I love stories so I love the longer, more complicated stories for movies like TDK. I love atmospheres, too. The first two words that come to my mind if I were to describe this film would be: dark and serious. Some parts my heart was actually racing.

Overall, I’m very satisfied. There you go, my first attempt at a movie review. I’m planning to make a book review soon, maybe a short one. I’m almost finished with Winter Moon by Dean Koontz. And I’m going to start the book I borrowed from Mang GB The Fountainhead.

I updated to Wordpress 2.6. Natakot pa ako nung una kasi naisip ko magloloko na naman. Na-phobia ako dahil dun sa previous hosting service ko na puro kapalpakan…Brinkster *cough cough*. hehehe. It was simple enough - backup, upload new files, restore backup, all done.

I’ve been feeling the need to make a drastic change. Some things that came to mind I wasn’t ready to do but I logged in to Friendster a few hours ago and eureka! It’s not that Friendster has some deep, important meaning in my life but, still, people don’t just wake up and think, “Hey, I’ll delete my Friendster account today.” hahaha. Doing this has been sort of a release and I feel liberated. Anyhow, Friendster has become boring lately and I only have it because everyone else does.

For the past weeks, i haven’t allowed myself to think because I know that I would be reduced, once again, into a sniveling wreck. And I was doing so well I was actually proud of myself. But things happen and there’s only so many ways that you can deal with them…

My book list is completely updated. I still have 50 books to read so I should stop buying more. Some women are compulsive shopper of clothes, bags, shoes; I’m a compulsive shopper of books. Every time I enter Borders I couldn’t leave without a purchase, or when I buy something from Amazon.com I also have to include books with the order. They also have that buy 3 books and get 1 free promo and I always go, “Oy sayang naman dagdagan ko na lang.” Kaya yun. There’s hardly space in my room before I started nursing school and now with the addition of textbooks…

Aside from the small fairy tale books that I used to read when I was very young, the first full novel I read was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s Secret Garden when I was in the fifth grade. I loved it and since then I’ve been reading and all my savings would go to books. Favorite store - National Bookstore hehehe. I had more than 100 books before I moved to Jersey for good and I had to give them away so this is already my 2nd collection. I did keep some of my favorites - Secret Garden, Little Women, Anne of Green Gables series, Fear Street books, and other mystery/suspense/horror books.

I’d like to think that my taste in books is maturing. I used to be obsessed with Sweet Valley series and murder/mystery books. Now, I’m branching out to…hmmm…I’m not sure what genre, but books you’ll find in the literature or bestseller section of the bookstore. I even have a few romance books for the sake of variety hehehe. What I will always love and will never outgrow are children’s books and fantasy. I’m a very imaginative person and these kinds of books bring wonderful escapism. The “Once upon a time, in a faraway land…” has an unexplainable appeal to me hehehe. I recently finished Howl’s Moving Castle and it was great. It was completely different from the movie, which I also loved, but I wouldn’t talk about it now. It deserves a whole another post.

Anyway, I’m not finished editing the pages for the Now Reading plugin. I’ll do it little by little, same as the rest of my website.