ONAT LOPERA

I really missed doing one of these entries. A little over a year since the last one. To break the deep slumber, here’s one that celebrates how good some movies are. Enjoy.
Atonement. From the man that gave us my favorite period drama movie so far, Pride and Prejudice (my review here), comes Joe Wright’s latest and equally stunning and magnificent masterpiece. Flawless and seemed perfect with superb performances from the leads and a cinematography that matches Pride and Prejudice’s beauty. I highly recommend this movie to drama and period movie goers. I wish I had seen this on the cinemas; it would have been sublime.

Casablanca. My favorite classic movie so far. Just pure and raw drama; I love it. Here’s looking at you kid.

The Happening. OMFGoodness is the best phrase to describe this. Very surprising flick from Mr. Shyamalan. It was so morbid. But the weirdest thing was an officemate and I were laughing during those scenes. It was the first time that I intentionally kept my eyes shut (for the shortest moment, that is) during some of the scenes; really disturbing and haunting. Despite of the overall bad ratings received by this movie, I like it.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull. Quite good until the climax and the ending rolled. I expected more perhaps. But it is Steven Spielberg at one of his best.

Iron Man. Great movie! Belongs to my short list of great single superhero movies.

The Kite Runner. There was a hype back then about this movie, so when I saw it on the stands, I had to see it and it was really nice.

My Blueberry Nights. My first Wong Kar Wai flick and thankfully, I was not disappointed. Visually pleasing with its vividness but its “choppy” feel on some frames makes me think that the DVD that I got have stratches on them. Apparently, it is Mr. Wong’s style. Top-billed by Nora Jones, but for this movie fan, she was out shined by the gorgeous Natalie Portman.

No Country for Old Men. Great movie from the Coen brothers (Ethan and Joel). Straight forward story with some really disturbing scenes courtesy of the recent Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor winner, Javier Bardem.

Perfume: Story of a Murderer. Great story and truly one of a kind. Perfect thriller with an amazing cinematography.

Wanted. This movie is bad-ass! It is true what they say on Hollywood that there is no female actress sexier when holding a gun than Angelina Jolie. The tattoos and the brief glutes exposure made the movie even more appealing. Also, this is the first time that I saw James McAvoy (of Atonement) on a non-dramatic “human” role. He will definitely be in the business for a long time. Such a versatile actor. The car chase scenes and the gunplays are gripping. Quite predictable and leaves clues but it is still really good.

But I missed the one movie that shouldn’t be missed, though technically, I missed the last third and it still depresses me. I hope the DVD would come out soon.

It happened again. Of all the things that would act up, it had to be my ear. I’m having vertigo episodes again, and been on for quite a long time. Otitis Media that lead to Recurrent Benign Postural Vertigo; sounds nice but it’s one of the worst to have.

In a nutshell, it is all because of my ear and my damn Eustachian tube again. You see I have an allergic rhinitis; which I dubbed “constant nasal secretions”. Then on that one awful day a few weeks back, I caught a cold, and together with my allergic rhinitis, there was a mucus build-up and went through my Eustachian tube into my inner ear. Our inner ear is in charge of our bodies’ balance, so when both hell broke loose, it screws up the pressure inside thus screwing up the body’s balance and that ladies and gents, is one of the things I had that I dread to recur.

It really is disenabling and agonizing. It starts as soon as you are awake. You’ll definitely tire of hoping that when you wake up in the morning that you won’t feel it. But for weeks, hope was just a word. Vertigo is there when there is movement on the body and that movement seems multiplied and just keeps going on that same motion even though it doesn’t. It is most of a struggle when you ride on a vehicle. The constant movement on the ride would still be rippling when you’re already on solid ground. It’s a struggle when you move period.

I wasn’t able to go to work for days but I kept the office well informed about my situation. I really appreciate them when they insisted to help me file for a sickness notification form so that I may have leave days that I could use. I’ve been to 2 doctors; each one came with a consultation fee and prescribed meds to take. Diagnosis on both of the doctors is the same, they even prescribed the same meds for me to take.

With continuous meds, it gets better on some days. I was even able to go to work for a day and two once before it went back to it’s agonizing state the next day.

There is a procedure to solve it but surgery is not advisable. According to my doctor, the procedure would mean piercing a hole into the eardrum to release the pressure on the inner ear. A punctured eardrum is not worth it juxtaposed not having vertigo as he advised. But he mentioned a device that we’re currently looking into. I’ve contacted relatives and a few friends that may help regarding the device and I do hope we could get it locally.

Taking it one day at a time.

Almost blazing is the perfect adjective to describe how fast the days had passed. First, you woke up one morning and realized that there would be no work for the day because of the Labor Day and then in the quickest turns of the minute hand, you’re thinking it’s so nice that you won’t have to buy school stuff for yourself for the coming school year. It was that fast.

I need to make this good; I have entries for the entire month of May so I’ll try my best to fill-up this huge chunk of unblogged month.

If you’re in the mood of reading a quite lengthy entry, just click on. If not, well it is a good read and you have to take my word for it. LOL

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It was on the 5th that a few of my officemates and I got a taste of it.

The day started really early for me. I set two of my phones’ alarms at 4AM. After getting up, I was also the designated wake-up call for some of my officemates by ringing them. Got all of my things packed and ready the night before so all that was left was the rice that I volunteered to bring. After it cooled down a bit, we put it onto those small plastic bags so that I don’t have to bring plasticware to the trek.

Before going to our rendezvous place, I swung by a grocery and drug store to get some supplies. Near the Park and Shop, in front of the Landbank ATM machine, almost everybody was there. All of us really excited. Some cameras were fired there and when we were all there, we got into a taxi and headed to JEST (Jungle Environmental Survival Training).

We arrived there and the place looks great. After looking around for a bit, we were briefed on where we would be going, what to do and not to do inside the forest. Not to touch this and that, not to be a pain for the group and if you happen to see a snake or even a cobra, we were instructed to just die right there on the spot. LOL just kidding.

And so the trek started.

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Bonjour! C’est moi encore. Apparently, my bulleted updates the last time wasn’t really a hit. I received a few comments why I left the juicy details on each entry out starting with that embarrassing thing. So I’ll make this update different.

First off, work, and yes, it is finally official; yours truly promoted as software tester (or SQE as I would prefer) team leader. Actually, the paper signing was over a few weeks back but I decided to make it more interesting by telling it now because I have another great news to share which is in starting on the 8th, I will go from probationary to a regular employee. Oui, merci beaucoup. They just keep on coming (and coming). I’m really grateful for everything that’s happening.

Also tomorrow, a few of my officemates and I will be going to JEST at SBMA (or SBFZ) for some forest hiking and swimming at the falls somewhere in the middle of it. It’ll be an early start for all of us, and as usual, I’ll be Onat the Rice Hoarder. I like bringing the stuff on potlucks though I rarely eat the stuff. What to expect? According to the talks on the office, there is a 30-minute trek and a 2-hour one which we would be taking. From tiring walks, snakes and a native Aeta as our guide; that is all I know at the moment. But still, I am really excited for tomorrow.

Monday’s a non-working holiday also so I’ll have more time to work on the site. Hopefully, I’ll upload the latest at the latest. A tout l’heure.

The awful “first movie for the year” aftertaste that Jumper left is finally gone because of this nice family flick; The Spiderwick Chronicles. Story was great and what’s more surprising is that for a movie that was probably made for kids, it had a surprising depth to it, especially on the characters and the details that came with them. With fairies and griffins, honey and tomato sauce, it was truly an entertaining movie for the whole family.

If I remember correctly what Jon Stewart said on the Oscars, “Thank God for teenage pregnancy!”. And I have one word to say about it and that’s “ditto”. From the director that brought Thank You For Smoking, which was great BTW, comes this witty teenage girl and her first baby bump, Juno. Great story and a perfect cast. Ellen Page was awesome in it. Now I just have to watch La Vie en Rose to find out why she didn’t bagged the golden baldie (see Oscars). Even the tracks are nice. Juno is the shizzle! Phuket Thailand! LOL Watch it.

A little off the topic, a small FYI for my three loyal readers, one thing about this blogger is that after the cinemas, he always has that itch to rent or buy movies. He’s kind of keeping the momentum, sort of speak. So Juno was the cure for that itch, just so you know.

Maybe there’s something in the water but I’ve been enjoying reading fiction books lately. I became a reader, and probably same with most, since the Harry Potter series came out. And with the 7th book already on the bookshelves, a lot of us needed new stuff to read. The question is, which books are good to read post-Potter?

Though everyone could escape with a really good movie, there is nothing like a good book to walk us through on every turn of the page. Reading may be time consuming and straining to the eye at times, but there is always that satisfying feeling you get every time you close a book and put it back to the shelves.

And here were my recent companions:

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