In the Magickal World of Narnia

S.A.P.#5



Just recently watched Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader and, as expected, it did not disappoint! Ever since watching the first movie, I have persistently waited for the upcoming sequels and knew that the next would be better and more interesting.

The Chronicles of Narnia, written by C.S. Lewis, tells the many stories of children who come from our world and is magically transported to Narnia to help its land in battling evil forces that threaten it. In all the seven books in the series, it mostly has the Pevensie siblings as protagonists of the story, with the exception from his fifth book 'The Horse and his Boy', it features a different hero and one that does come from Narnia itself. Recurring elements include talking animals, magical phenomenon, numerous mystical places, the Good vs. Evil archetypal plot and, of course, the Lion Aslan.

So far, Walden Media has presented three films, 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', 'Prince Caspian' and 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'. Hollywood, of course, has done some revisions but only for the sake of filling censored gaps C.S. Lewis failed to write in his book. You see, Lewis was writing for children and so he didn't depict any violent situations that should describe a certain event. For instance, in the 'Lion'; in the film, the directors were ever okay in showing the big, climactic battle of Peter and Aslan's Army versus the White Witch's, while in his book, he emphasized more on how Susan and Lucy went back to the Witch's castle to rescue the prisoners and didn't go into full detail of the battle.
There are more actually in all of the movies, but I think the scriptwriters of Nania films did a good job of making the Narnia plot more solid and intense and un-Fairy Tale-ish, making the audience (me included) feel the grand scale of the adventures of the Pevensie children.

Narnia, unlike traditional fairy tales, has taken different folklores ad myths to a whole new level of adventurous spirit, emphasizing that children, no matter the age, do have the abilities to do the most impossible possible. And perhaps Narnia would have another need of them when the time comes again...

Everyday Paranormal-Provoking ghosts by just talking to them (Spooky!)

S.A.P. #4

Ghost Lab is a documentary series showed in Discovery Channel, televising the different adventures of Brad and Barry Klinge, co-founders of their own Paranormal Investigating Team called Everyday Paranormal.

I have watched the first season of Ghost Lab last summer and is now waiting for the second season (well, actually we're watching some episodes on the Net now, hehe).

Anyway, one of the most interesting parts of their investigative styles is communicating (in Brad and Barry's cases, they provoke) with the still earth-bound spirits that haunt a certain location or building. And they didn't have to do Seances or any other traditional supernatural way of doing it.

Using technology to record data, the Klinge brothers and their paranormal investigative team communicate with them to prove, or disprove, if the place really is haunted or gather evidence of paranormal phenomenon.

If you want to see the Klinge Brothers and the rest of the Everyday paranormal team in action, search them on YouTube or follow this link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azY0Jezip-E.

Ghost Lab isn't that really scary to watch, and maybe that's why I can still stand watching it XD.

The difference between 'Pis' and 'Pis'

SAP #3

For people who had mastered the grammar and pronunciation of English(pipol op da Republic op da Pilipins, lisen ap!) by non-English-native speakers, people who are not trained by it tend to see this as a sort of 'ka-artehan'--for the elite, of for those who wanted to be seen highly. This is especially true to where I'm standing, as people who talk to a person always using the American slang and its informal speeches see this unappealing in a sense that they wished that this person should live in the States instead.
But I'm not going to blog about that. I'm going to talk about how important grammar and pronunciation can be when you ARE speaking in English.
I'm going to narrate a bunch of stories.

Friend: 'May pisbook ka?'
Me: (pisbook? Fish book?)'Fish book?'
Friend: 'Pisbook! Yung online!'
Me: 'Ah, Facebook! Sorry...'

Friend #1: 'Wanna me go with you to CR?'
Me: 'Sige.'
Friend #2: 'What did you say?'
Friend #1: 'I'm gonna, like, escort her to restroom for a while.'
Friend #2: 'Ah, okay...'

Mom: 'Gusto mo ng Hush Brown?'
Brother: 'Sapatos? (thnking of Hush Puppies)'
Mom: 'Ba't mo kakainin sapatos?'
Me: 'Baka Hash Browns ata yun.'
Brother: 'Ah, o sige...'

A joke I remember goes like this:

English - Visayan:
Peace - Pis
Fish - Pis
Face - Pis
Pace - Pis

For me, learning to pronounce the words correctly whenever we learn new languages is as important as learning how the language works. You never know if this could lead from misunderstanding to fights.

Hearing Balthier's voice--Magnetism through speaking

S.A.P. #2

Whenever my younger brother plays his video game, Final Fantasy XII, I would watch it and wait for how our two most favorite characters will react to their quest and crack up a wise nugget or so.
If you want to know who our favorite characters are, their names are Balthier and Fran, Sky Pirates in the fictional fantasy world of Ivalice, where most of their adventures are happening.

For a short description, Balthier and Fran are sky Pirates, Balthier being the suave, British-accented and cocky Human, while his partner, Fran, is a Viera, a tall and lithe creature who are mysterious and odd as their trademark rabbit-like ears.
What makes them my favorite characters is that the way they stand-out is because of how these two work together in a sense that they are reminiscent to Han Solo and Chewbacca's partnership.

But anyway, I'm not going to talk about how much of a fan I am and describe them. I'm here to talk about how Balthier wins fans by his sharp looks and even sharper witty lines.

Just hearing Balthier's voice (mind you, he's voiced by a Brit!) and how every line he says to any of the characters exudes confidence makes him every bit more interesting, therefore creating a sort of magnetizing charm. (Great. Just what a fan girl would EXACTLY say about her favorite). His masculinity also redefines it in a sense that he doesn't have to show muscles or brawn to be masculine.

Anyway, if you don't believe me, just watch this short video of him
(Great! Just how a fan girl WOULD show it)

Miscommunication in our everyday lives...

S.A.P #1

Miscommunication happens when the speaker's message did not fully reach the listener's ear, and there fore might send a wrong message back, or the listener will decode the message in a wrong way, therefore will result in an argument or so...

Miscommunication happens to me more often than not because most of the time we don't speak clearly or we heard it wrong. I live with grandparents actually, and miscommunication happens a lot and I have to be patient.

There was one time yesterday when I was asking my grandmother what type of hair product is she using, but she only answered back by saying that I spray the hair product now on her hair. I never repeated the question anymore since I saw what the hair product is.
Another time happened when I was talking to my grandfather on his office. I asked him if he was going to pay for my tuition fee next semester, but he answered me by saying that my dad can't afford to pay big money again for my brother. The unconnected answer I got from him made me repeat the question again until he did answer me rightly, although he wasn't aware that he had misheard me. But of course, it's understandable when it comes to your grandparents when you talk to them, since they are somewhat impaired in hearing now and you have to be patient about it.

But it sometimes gets into your nerves when the one you're talking to is almost as old as you and still can't hear you, or perhaps isn't even listening to you.
One example was when I was asking my brother, who was in the living room while I was in the kitchen, about a part on the newest video we saw on YouTube that was so funny. But then I was surprised he answered me back by saying the we can watch the new funny video again on YouTube...

Even though I try my best in clearing my throat to speak clearly (and loudly) to the people in the house I live in, sometimes I wished they could hear or speak as clearly as possible, or else a wrongly heard message can lead to disastrous results.

The Final Fantasy Mania! Can't get off my head, even!

Ever since the start of Semestral break, I couldn't stop exercising the thoughts of making a Fan Comic about Final Fantasy! And now that Sem break is over and with X-mas vacation only a few wishful weeks away, I finally said to myself, 'Why not?'




I chose to make a Fan Comic about Final Fantasy XII since this is the nearest Final Fantasy reference I have (my brother's playing it in his PS2 and I can't miss a single story episode of it!). Furthermore, FF-XII is actually, according to most die-hard players and videogame reviewers, the least popular FF franchise because it was a bit tad different compared from its predecessors, emphasizing on how very different the style of the storyline is and the characters having not enough ounce of Super 'oompf' factor in them--except the two Sky Piratical characters, Balthier and Fran, who are the only real stand-out characters in the FF-XII plot.

Anyhoo, even though it was deemed not the most popular game, the gameplay won over me and my brother. But these are not enough reasons for why I want to make a different story about FF-XII.
Since fans of the FF franchise thought FF-XII was not the greatest, I thought maybe a different story would make it the greatest! And also a very different heroic character would make the themes of FF-XII more promising than the young too-archetypal and static Vaan of the FF-XII!




the protagonist Vann of Final Fantasy XII




Princess Ashe (center); The ever-handy and clever duo Sky Pirates Balthier(left)and Fran(right) - major characters of Final Fantasy XII.


Final Fantasy isn't the first kind of Fan Comic I wanted to do since I was introduced to the world of gaming.

There was Devil May Cry



My plans for DMC were that I make two different stories: one is about Dante's untold teenage years (with Dante sporting the white hair-do, not from the latest DmC plot!) and about the mysterious woman named Bea and her connections to his father's death. The second would be about a mysterious man named Anthony Villert, whose duty is to rescue Dante (from a little after DMC 2 storyline) and escape from the depths of Hell when Dante went there to duke it out with Argosax the Chaos. Anthony is paired with the help from a new hero named Sigmund Cassius, an Immortal man with extensive knowledge of the Demon World, and together they travel to locate the long-lost portal that was used by Mundus himself when he plunged the world into a hellish nightmare to rule it 2xxx or so years ago.

Another work I've been doing is an original fiction entitled 'Bloody Klutzy'. This was influenced because of Twilight, but I'm not a fan of the juvenile fiction that many claim to be a number one work of literature today!
I made the idea of 'Bloody Klutzy' because I wanted to take paranormal, blood and teen-thriller themes in a more wackier, slanderous and upbeat way, make it more 'natural' and 'unnatural' all at the same time! (Good luck with that, though!)

Oh well, as for the makings of my Final Fantasy Fan Comic, I'm still designing the characters, the settings (a lot of research must be conducted!), the title and the story lines to make it totally superb than the last one.
Hope there's still some time to finish all of my Fan Comics and original fiction novel!

Think the New Emo Dante sucks like eggs? For me, it could've been worse...

Note: Sorry for not being able to blog for three FIR's now. Other academics won over my time management I could not even blog. Today is the final blog entry for my FIR, but that would not stop me for using this account for further blogging of the different reading materials I have already read. Although it would not be graded anymore, blogging is more than just grades...
You, dear blog reader, are always welcome to read my entries. Just don't blame me for when I'm about the spill any beans about a certain book/article/magazine, etc. that you're going to read.

FIR#17

Title of the article: "Think emo Dante sucks in new Devil May Cry game? He could have been shirtless with suspenders!"
Author: Dave Meikleham, GamesRadar UK
Status: Finished
Date read: Oct. 2, 2010
Date finished: the same

Since when I was a kid, I have been into games, really. I understand it runs in the family a little--my dad, along with my other cousins who were high school students back then, would always play with the Family Computer with retro games such as 'Street Fighter', 'Mario Bros.', etc. When my mom got home from Taiwan years ago and brought home the very first Play Station, that was when I understood the mechanics of gaming.
Along with my brother, we perceived gaming like reading a novel or even writing one! Especially since our dad bought the Play Station 2 when I hit high school, gaming evolved from not just the usual pixel-ated characters that jump around every platform to save Princess Peach from a cute green but menacing dragon, but now it was about creating a character out of your own imagination, or even creating worlds to create a new grandiose of a story! From console gaming to PC RPG's, gaming and story merged together for the new generation to enjoy...
Anyway, let's get to the article I read the last time.

The Article
The article I read talks about the 'reboot'/remake of the nine-year old console game called Devil May Cry, with the reboot more apparent in the changed look of the game's protagonist, Dante.



Yes, not a pretty sight at all!
According to GamesRadar, the idea to make a new, grittier, punky, smoking but younger Dante came from the new team of developers who had been assigned by the head company, Capcom Japan, to make this project. The ones who are in this project are Capcom U.S.A. and Ninja Theory, another gaming company.
And the funny thing was that the new team assigned for this project actually had five designs for the new Dante, one of which had him wearing only suspenders! LOL!
With that said, Inafune, one of the producers in Capcom Japan, didn't approve most of the previous designs and went to the one above...



Trying to explain to interviewers about this so-called reboot, Alex Jones, from the Western Capcom, cites Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight film as the inspiration. "Look at the Dark Knight! That went from Gothic fun house of the earlier Batman movies to a fairly dark look at Chicago crime today! We want to update and mature the tone of Devil May Cry."
So for the fans who had dearly loved the previous four installments of Devil May Cry, blame Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight! LOL! Just kidding!

As for Ninja Theory's game designer Tameem Antoniade who wants to give his opinions on the old Dante, he states, "If Dante, dressed as he was before, walked around outside a bar in a city, he'll get laughed at!"
He continues to say that Devil May Cry needed to have the same impact as it had had before by drawing on to new things, new fashion, new music, etc.



From left to right: the old Dante (his appearance from Devil May Cry 3) and the new Dante.

Fans, and even Hideki Kamiya--the original creator of the previous Dante--had out poured their deepest hatred and disgust for the new look and storyline, stating that they (Capcom) had destroyed the game by changing Dante, since Dante is the iconic foundation of how the game became popular.

Despite this, the developers are now pushing through the project and will set to release in 2011.
Oh well, at least Dante doesn't have to wear ridiculous suspenders and shirtless.

Insights
For me, personally, I think the change will be alright since this new Dante might/will be a new protagonist to a very different storyline from the previous games' plot. Also, based from the trailer that Capcom has released in YouTube, I think Ninja Theory had made a good job on emphasizing on the gritty parts of the game and, most especially, on the new Dante.
What I'm worrying now is how exactly will this game be a reboot, since I am just making guesses that the new Dante would be different from the old Dante I had liked and known so well already. I can only cross my fingers on how it will turn out, and hope that Capcom had not made any bad moves in taking risks to make Devil May Cry better than ever.