Vacation Leave!

I am so happy to be blogging again. I’m on first mandatory leave since I started working for my new company. I get another one and a half days off after the Christmas. After that, I’ll have to work really hard because the team and I will be doing the year-end reports. That’ll probably take up the whole night.

Hmm…what else has been going on with me? Nothing much. I’ve still been watching my favorite shows. So let’s have a little run-down:

Gossip Girl – Hmm.. Yes, Juliet Sharp was really annoying but she did have a reason. But I’m not saying that it’s a good enough reason to try and destroy Serena. Oh, and who didn’t love the little twist about Lily van der Woodsen? Turns out she was the reason why Ben Sharp (now we find out that he’s Serena’s teacher at the boarding school) is in prison. Sneaky bitch. Plus the fact that she’s trying to sell Bass Industries as quietly as possible. She deserves whatever’s coming to her. By the way, I’m still not loving the Dan and Serena pair. I’d prefer that Serena be with Nate. Oh wait, maybe we’ll see Nate mature a little. Then we can see that pairing happen.

The Vampire Diaries – Very nice cliffhanger. We won’t see a new episode until January. I just have to say Michael Trevino’s acting here was very much on target. I could see the pain he was undergoing. The pain in the transformation scenes weren’t forced. Caroline and Tyler…there may be something there worth exploring. Let’s see who she chooses.. Matt or Tyler. Elena and Stefan together again…Yes! Damon and Rose are not good together. I think Damon needs someone as badass as he is.

Glee – I hope Charice shows up soon. I hope Kurt moves back to New Directions with Darren Criss’ character. I hope Rachel and Finn work out their issues soon and get back together. And wasn’t that a tear-jerking scene near the end of their Christmas episode? Artie walking! Yay!

Burn Notice – I’ve finally finished Season 3. Onward to Season 4.

Family Guy – I’m hoping to watch the latest episode tonight, if not tomorrow.

White Collar – almost done! I’m about to watch the second to the last episode of Season 2. Can’t wait for Season 3 to start.

Spartacus – I’ve just started to watch this. There might be some potential here. I’ve noticed that it’s like “300” on TV. I wish great health towards the actor who plays Spartacus and hope that he overcomes his cancer.

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Okay, for non-TV related events:

I got myself the latest iPod touch after months of indecision between the iPod touch and the Blackberry Bold 9700. I had the iPhone 4 in mind but figured that since it’s a 2-in-1 gadget and should I lose it, I’ll be losing not one, but two things: my phone and my music player.

My next goal is the Blackberry Bold 9700. I’m saving that for my birthday.

Yes, I know I posted earlier that I’ll be getting the BB 9700 but because of Globe Telecom’s LOUSY CUSTOMER SERVICE, I’ve decided to wait. More on Globe’s bad customer service as soon as they get my issue resolved.

Right now, what I’m doing is blogging while I get my iPod software updated to 4.2. And based on my internet speed, the counter says that I still have 3 hours to go. So what I’ll probably do is be busy with downloading the album covers and filling in the missing data from my iTunes music.

Anyone can recommend a better ISP?

What else? I’m enjoying my work so far. My new team mates have been great so far. Charls will be joining us next year and I’m looking forward to it.

Hopefully I’ll be able to get my parents a great Christmas gift soon. I’ll probably do some Christmas shopping tomorrow after work. I really don’t want to do some shopping after the 15th, the day being a payday for most people. It’ll be traffic hell, for sure.

That’s it!

 

 

Music Monday: Sleeperstar: I Was Wrong

I saw “Rose” a day after it aired in the US and was instantly in love with the song playing in the background during a heartbreaking Damon and Elena moment. I decided to search for the song and a fellow blogger provided me with the song details.

The song is entitled “I Was Wrong” by Sleeperstar.

I hope you guys enjoy the song as much as I did.

 

And here’s the heartbreaking scene:

The Week In Review

So, let’s see…

November 1 – I went to work while people who work in non-BPO environments were on holiday leave. Work was okay. I wasn’t bored.

November 2 – I still went to work and was almost late. Nothing exciting here. Tried to download/stream the latest episode of Gossip Girl but couldn’t.

November 3 – Experienced overtime at the office. Worked 4 more hours than usual. Tried to go home before 9 PM so I could catch Glee. Found out that there was no new episode of Glee. Tried to stream Gossip Girl’s “War of the Roses” again.

November 4 – Had lunch with Charls. Claimed my DKNY giveaway from Nuffnang. Spent time with my good friend Rolls. Had a great time catching up. Watched “War of the Roses”. That whole peace treaty thing with Blair and Chuck? So great. Serena falling into old patterns, what else is new? And then the ending scene with Chuck and Blair making out? Epic. Then downloaded Hellcats’ “Back of A Car”. The whole Marti losing her virginity to Dan and Savannah finding out about it the night she decides to give up her virginity to Dan is major friend drama. The kind of drama I’ve been waiting for the show to produce since it came out.

November 5 – Went to work. Went to Glorietta for my NBI clearance renewal. Thankfully, I was done in a few minutes. Grabbed some take-out from Wendy’s. Hailed a cab to go back to work. Chatted with Charls. Talked to my boss Helen about Charls. And then, we had a freakin’ fire drill. We had to go down using the stairs ALL THE WAY from the 24th floor! Then we had to “wait out” the fire by more than an hour so I to extend an hour more at work just to compensate for the hour missed. Not that my boss required it of me. There were just some reports that needed to be done by Monday. Downloaded The Vampire Diaries’ “Rose”. Great, great episode. And there were two sweet Elena and Damon moments. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m a big Stefan-Elena fan. But the moment Damon said “I love you” to Elena…I don’t know. I wish they’d get together for at least a season and then Elena goes back to Stefan. :)

And that’s how my week went. Oh, and somewhere along the week, I found out that Blake Lively and Penn Badgley broke up after three years of dating. Apparently, it’s because Penn wasn’t ready to put a ring on it.

 

The Vampire Diaries: Kill Or Be Killed

Loved the scene wherein Stefan was feeding on Elena’s blood.

All it takes is a couple of drops of human blood every day to make him stronger and be able defeat Katherine.

Super major surprise: Mason wants the moon stone so he can give it to Katherine. They make out after Mason gives the moon stone to her.

So the bigger question is: After giving the moon stone to the Lockwoods in 1864, why does she want it back now?

Unfortunately, we won’t know more until October 21st.

Oh well.

 

 

The Vampire Diaries: Memory Lane

I’ll just sum up this episode.

Damon, Alaric, Jenna and Mason get together at the Gilbert House. Elena and Caroline are there too. Of course we know that Damon, Alaric and Elena have a motive for the party. Damon keeps cracking dog and wolf related jokes and references. Funniest dialogue for me:

Jenna: Mason was a catch. He had girls lining up.

Damon: Really? Huh… I always pegged you for a lone wolf.

Mason: Well I’m sure I wasn’t half the lady killer you were.

Elena got worried about Stefan because he wasn’t returning her calls. That is because Stefan was busy torturing Katherine. Or at least he thought he was. Turns out Katherine has been sipping vervain for the last 145 years and it doesn’t affect her at all, except if you put it directly on her skin. Katherine told Stefan about her side of the story of what happened in 1864. It is revealed that she didn’t need saving and that she really did come back because she loved Stefan. It’s also revealed that before

Caroline offered to drive Elena to the Salvatore house but kept delaying Elena.

Elena and Stefan stage a fight and made sure Caroline and Damon heard the fight. They later met at Elena’s room to make up.

And here’s a preview of the next episode “Kill or Be Killed”:

The Vampire Diaries: The Return

The episode opens where it left off last season. Elena comes home to find Uncle John aka Dad bleeding to death from stab wounds made by Katherine. Elena doesn’t actually see Katherine since the latter moves faster than Elena. Elena checks on her brother and calls Stefan for help.

Damon confronts Elena about the kiss and then realizes that he kissed Katherine instead of Elena.

Katherine confesses to Stefan that she came back for him. Later, Damon shows a bit of humanity, some vulnerability, when he tells her how much he missed her. He was doing a mini-speech, building up to the question “Did you love me?”, but Katherine stopped him. She said that it has always been Stefan.

He looks devastated.

Later on, he goes to Elena’s place and kisses her but she pushes him away. Damon insists that they have something between them. Elena says it will always be Stefan. Hurt and angry, Damon kills Jeremy.

Elena tells Stefan that she hates Damon. Jeremy wakes up. You guess as what.

ON THE ACTORS’ ACTING:

I thought Nina played both Elena and Katherine well. However, I’d like to see Nina play more scenes with Katherine pretending to be Elena, with all the meekness and sweetness that Elena has and Katherine doesn’t have. Because right now, you can easily tell on-screen when Nina is playing Elena and when she’s playing Katherine. Katherine has this nicer hair and tighter clothes while Elena goes for the simple and classic look. It would be a nice surprise for viewers not to be able to tell them apart and then be shocked with a twist.

Paul Wesley. Hmmm… Paul Wesley. Stefan. Sorry Paul-lovers but I couldn’t really get/feel the grit and the meanness underlying his character, especially when he was assaulting Uncle John in the hospital. Yes, we know he’s a nice guy. But somehow, I can’t agree with some other bloggers that Stefan could be a little scarier than Damon because you expect bad attitude coming from Damon but not from cool and calm Stefan. I’d like to see more grit, more controlled anger, if that’s possible, coming from Paul. But I will say that my favorite scene of him was when he was very concerned if Jeremy had become a vampire. Slapping Jeremy was a great touch. I love that scene. It showed what I was looking for and was lacking in that Uncle John scene. It was as if he could really lose control of his temper. If Paul could project that controlled passion every time a scene calls for it, that would be just awesome. 

Ian Somerhalder. What can I say? He’s the vampire you love to hate but would love to love at the same time. Favorite scene was when the three of them were in Elena’s kitchen and Damon had just told them that he kissed Elena who turned out be Katherine. I love how Damon reacted to Stefan’s “Later”. Damon had this lopsided smile, mean & dangerous eyes and a quick little wrinkle on the nose, as if to say “Bring it on, Stefan”.

I like how Ian was able to display vulnerability. You feel sorry for the guy.

Overall rating, I’d say, pretty above average.

And here’s a clip for the next episode.

What did you think of Season 2 Episode 1?

 

 

Music Monday: The Pretty Reckless and Travie McCoy

I must admit I didn’t have an interest in checking out Little J’s (Taylor Momsen in real life) music in The Pretty Reckless but I changed my mind after hearing bits and pieces of it in The Vampire Diaries’ The Year of the Kat promo.

This song entitled “Make Me Wanna Die” kind of reminds me of “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence. I don’t know why. And it’s ironic because of the song titles. But I can see why this song was chosen for “The Vampire Diaries”. The song has lyrics “Every time I look in your eyes, you make me wanna die”, very much reminiscent of Stefan and Damon’s vampiric hypnotic powers. Besides, the CW has been known to support their artists’ music (hello Leighton Meester for Gossip Girl Season 3 episode soundtrack).

Anyway, here’s the video:

Here’s a song by Travie McCoy featuring Bruno Mars called “Billionaire”. I love this song. I like the beat and the melody. The lyrics are amusing yet realistic and echoes what every other person is thinking if and when he becomes a billionaire, including charities and other fantasies.

Comment away if you have suggestions as to what other music I should listen to. I’m currently checking out Arcade Fire. Will post about that soon.

True Blood & Vampire Diaries & the Cause They Support

This is a series that I honestly was initially interested in. But I mentioned I like series, right? I stopped watching by episode 5 of Season 1 only because I was unable to catch the succeeding episodes because of work.

I’m constantly seeing Facebook friends excited about True Blood. I must admit it is interesting whenever I get to watch episodes every now and then.

And I see this picture.

Bloody hell. I thought it was cute how Stephen Moyer is covering Anna’s breast with him being Anna’s real life fiance. But with all the nudity and sex scenes going on in the set, I’m pretty sure they’re not uncomfortable here.

True Blood comes highly recommended and for that, I think I’ll check it out.

I don’t get the fuss about Alex Skarsgard. It might be because I haven’t seen the series in its entirety. For now, I think the hottest vampire in town is Damon Salvatore. He can bite me anytime. Wink, wink. :)

Oh, and for fictional vampire lovers out there, The Vampire Diaries, True Blood and Twilight are auctioning off some stuff.

Visit the site here. Proceeds go to funding the cleaning of Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Getting Sucked into the World of Vampires

What is it with all things vampiric? Ever since Stephenie Meyer let loose Edward, Bella and Jacob, we’ve become vampire-crazy. Yes, “we”, including me.

I’m not really into it. I found the Twilight series mildly entertaining. And since I’m such a sucker (yes, pun intended) for a series, I’ve bit into (sorry, I can’t help it) the whole thing, books and movies. And while I don’t really enjoy the whole franchise of Twilight, I find myself wanting more only because I have a compulsion to finish what I started. But I, for one, refuse to indulge into other vampire novels and movies. Except for The Vampire Diaries. And I blame my friend Angelo for getting me into it.

I don’t get what the fuss is about. It’s basically all the same thing. Twilight, True Blood and The Vampire Diaries all share things in common, namely:

• A big, pathetic love story, usually a love triangle
• Vampires in love with humans
• Werewolves
• Witches – oh wait, Twilight didn’t have them. I wonder why?

I’ve watched a couple of episodes of True Blood. I didn’t like it. What is the deal with the retractable fangs??

I recently spent 11 hours consecutively, from 3 AM to 2 PM, (effectively wasting my Monday morning. Good thing I didn’t have work and there were no commercial breaks) watching the remainder of Season 1 of The Vampire Diaries. And here’s my deal:

• Why do the halls of Mystic Falls High are always, always dimly lit even if classes are on-going? That is not at all safe for everyone.
• Why is it important for these small town folks to celebrate everything the Founding Families did? I get the 150th Anniversary celebration, but what about that dinner (the one where Stefan and Damon went to when it was held for the first time ever)? Why is this town so big on traditions?
• I love the reference to Twilight. Yes, Stephenie, why do vampires have to sparkle? That was sort of genius for LJ Smith to make them day walkers.

I have to stop watching or reading things part of a series. I just won’t get enough. Well, at least for the first three or four years.

My favorite part of TVD? IAN SOMERHALDER. Those eyes! Man! I could not tell what color they were. They sometimes appear to be bluish-gray or greenish gray. Very compelling eyes. Like he doesn’t need to be a vampire in order to compel other women (though I highly doubt it’ll work on straight men). But actions and facial expressions seemed a little gay-ish. I wonder if he is gay. I hope not. If it weren’t for him, I would’ve stopped watching the series after 3 hours.

So here’s a picture I got off the internet. You could just stare at his eyes all day.