Rurouni Kenshin Live Action Trailer

I guess I've been really holed up for a really long time. I just heard of the live action Rurouni Kenshin a few days ago. I'm shamed! :) But happy as well. It's about time that they made a movie.

Latest promos for just about everyone on the Web

I don't usually blog about any ads that I ran into, but at least one of the current advertising campaigns right now should appeal to some on the net. So, I'm just doing my part in spreading the good promos out there right now.

This picture pretty much sums up the campaigns. We have something for SingTel and AMPed users, Lady Gaga Fans, Marigold brand patrons, logo designers and artists, anyone who uses makeup, bloggers, Facebook, Twitter and other social media buffs. And did I mention, also anyone who wants to win an iPad 2 or XBox Kinect? :))

New Thor Movie Trailers and Teasers -- from Conan

Just watched the new Thor movie the other day. It's good! Then I also watched Conan for the last few days who featured very... interesting... Thor trailers. Hehehe :))

Reliving the Passion of the Christ

Not sure what got into us, but we just decided to watch The Passion of the Christ this Good Friday. Guess it's timely and we really didn't have anything else at hand that fit te occassion.

At a certain point -- when the brutality peaked a new high -- it all came back rushing to me. I remember the time we watched this years ago at the movies. I cringed, felt numb all over, and my body agonizing at the bloody scenes my tear-drenched eyes are witnessing.

I guess the most violent scene -- when I was "hit" the hardest -- was the flagelation of Jesus by the Roman soldiers. He was stripped down and chained to a stone then the soldiers lashed out at his back with sticks left and right. Not happy with that, they turned to the flails with metal spikes and... well, guess you all know what happened. By the time the movie ended, my ribs still felt funny in a way and from my knees down to my feet are still numb. It took me a while to recover from that.

I watched some violent movies before but all of them paled in comparison to the brutality in that scene. Somehow I wondered why I forgot that and wanted to watch this movie again. Not sure if I'm ever gonna watch this again. Perhaps I will, but it's not gonna be anytime soon!

Linking a Blog to Facebook and Twitter via NetworkedBlogs app

For the past few days, I've been playing around with several apps in Facebook for blogging.

So far NetworkedBlogs is one of the more useful ones, since it can automatically update your Facebook as well as your Twitter.

So here's how you do it:
1. Login to Facebook and search for NetworkedBlogs.

2. Click on 'Go to application.'

3. Register your blog.

4. Verify your blog. Either have your friends confirm (slow) or you can do it yourself (fast).

5. Click on Add a Twitter account and follow instructions to link this app with your account.


- via BlogPress in iPhone

How to Link your Blog to Facebook via Notes

Just in case anyone is interested, here are the steps in linking your blog to your Facebook. The changes in Facebook's look-and-feel a few weeks back changed the way some of the applications are configured, such as Notes. Here's the way I found on how to do this easily and quickly:


1. Search for "Notes"

How to Link your Blogger to your Twitter via Feedburner

In case you want to automatically publicize your "Blogger" or "Blogspot" blog via Twitter, here's one way how you could do it, using Feedburner.

PART 1: Setup Feedburner Account / Feed for your Blog
1. Go to www.feedburner.com and login using your Google Account (yep, it's part of Google now).

2. On the space provided, enter your blog's URL then click Next.
3. Depending on your blog, you may or may not have an already existing feed and would be asked to select which feed to use (Atom or RSS). If unsure, just select any of the choices (or the default one) then click Next.

Daddy-to-Be's Long Reprieve

And it's another one of those times when I'm so no blogging for a long while. Not that I don't want to.I simply put it (blogging) off because I'm busy with something else. You know, important things that requires my utmost attention... sort of. :)

So what the hell have I been up to?

Birthday May
My birthday. My birth month. Yey! Yipee! Nothing unusual. Same old, same old celebration at the house with my wife. TV. Cake. Food. Never gets old! :)

Then towards the end of the month, we returned to good ol' Philippines -- way after the May 2010 elections. Our last visit was way back August 2009. Those were painful times for us... So at least now, it's good to look back at our last visit as a more pleasant one.

Unfortunately, the last visit was not without casualties. The touchscreen of Che's Nintendo DS Lite is broken. Well, not broken broken. Just that it can't detect the stylus accurately anymore. It's like there's always a stylus pointed at the upper left region of the screen, so when you're not doing anything, you will see the pointer always on that location. Oh well, I guess it's time to move on. I'm actually eyeing that new Nintendo DS XL. Not sure if the R4DS works on that as well though; haven't had the time to look into it yet...

Then there's this nagging cold and flu. I had this since before our flight home, but I thought I could get by with just Tempra Forte. Guess not. And the weather did not help at all. Raining slightly for ten minutes followed by intense sunlight everyday really did a number on me. Good thing I still get to drive the car... Wow, I missed driving!


Raining June
Yep, rain, rain, rain, and more rain. Good to know that by the time we left, it already started raining again in Manila... At least for the first few days, that is.

So we had the usual cleanup-after-returning-from-a-trip. A bit harder that usual since we're also rearranging stuff for the baby. :) We finally decided to get a Trends portable aircon for the master bedroom. And yes, we're living in a flat without an aircon for the last two years. So installing the portable aircon was a welcome change. It was fun installing the exhaust for the portable aircon; removing the dusty old roman curtain, covering the exhaust cover with printed foil cover (heh), and moving things around so we can place the aircon as close to the window as possible.

Then there's two events that keeps Singapore busy these days: the annual IT Show in Suntec City and, of course, the Great Singapore Sale (GSS). Things just got a bit busier. :)

We already planned this way back... The next big thing that we will buy is a videocam. And so, after much comparison, and weighing of the pros and cons, we finally decided on buying a shiny blue Sony HDR-CX150E. It's within our slightly tightening budget, lightweight, has an internal 16GB harddisk, supports both the Sony memory stick and the SD card, touchscreen, 3.1 Megapixels, 25x Optical zoom, Full HD (1080). And since it's the IT Show, we got a lot of freebies - extra batt, video frame, tripod, etc. And so there you have it. A good buy to suit our needs.

And the very first thing we shot: Che's ultrasound. After three previous sessions of failing to determine our baby's gender, we finally got a confirmation: IT'S A BOY! Hehehe :) And we got it all on tape -- or disk, whatever. :)

Then the ongoing GSS also got us busy. Preparing the baby stuff, choosing the crib and stroller, and more. All these considerations is sometimes abit hard to swallow... Oh well, part of being a new dad. :)

Then on top of these all, there's one other thing we are having a hard time with: what will be the baby's name? We've narrowed down it down to about ten combinations -- we decided that baby should have two first names, so as to avoid the problem I had with NBI Clearance: if your name is too common, chances are, somewhere around the country, there is another person with the same name. :)

So there you have it. The things that got me all riled up. :) Hopefully I can get to post something more often. I do have some opinions about what's happening around. I'm still deciding whether I should publish it or not, though. :)

Good day!

First iPhone Post

Just testing out the newBlogPressLite application for the iPhone.

Doesn't have the full set of tools as the actual blogger site, but at least you can blog anytime, anywhere... Of course in my case, I need to have a wifi connection to do so. I didn't get a postpaid plan, but now I'm entertaining the thught of getting one. :))

This is the free version only. Haven't had the chance to take alook at the full version yet. Guess I was a bit on a rush after finding out about this . Hehe :))

Oh well, back to work...

Getting back on the groove...

It's been a while since I last posted something on this or any of my blogs. Ever since, well... after the whole ordeal we had with Angel. Read more on Che's post here.

This has been a most difficult thing for me to write about. She's supposed to be our first baby... and out first big loss...

Don't want to dwell too much on this. We're just moving on.

My Blog's New Look

First off, special thanks to Dan Cruz. I've been struggling for a while about the blogger templates. For those who'd seen my blog a long time ago, you'd see the series of changes that took place.

Anyway, I happen to be online in YM and Dan sent me a message. It's actually been a while since I last heard from here as well as from his blog. The topic about blog layouts came about and I mentioned the difficulty I've faced.

I've done so much experimenting that I think I almost lost it. So, I simply reverted back to one of the default blogger templates -- already forgot what that one was.

Dan mentioned that he faced the same thing before -- the reason he did not update his blog for the longest time between 2007 to 2008. Turns out he's been busy studying CSS and XML. :) He suggested that I do the same, but with a little help from the site here.

Ooh boy. How great was that site! They said you will WOW when you explore the site. Well in my case, just saw the first page and already I said WOW. :) I downloaded one of the templates there. Hence, the look that you are seeing right now -- the super-customizable Professional Template.

This won't be the final look of this blog. Afterall, there's always room for improvement. But using the templates from the site is certainly a good place to start.

Well, I'm done here. It's 4AM here and I haven't slept yet. Well, technically I slept at around 3PM yesterday up until around 7:30 PM, which in restorspect, might explain why I'm still awake at this time. :)

Anyway... I think I'm rambling in my post already. Thanks for reading! :)

Update after a two-week hiatus

Just found sometime to post something here after two weeks of absence. It's been a busy two weeks for me. It's my "duty" month, which means I am on call 24/7. And the last two weeks have been anything but quiet. :)

So anyway, what the hell have I been doing the last two weeks?

My TV rants
The Olympics coverage here in SG is very thorough, with StarHub dedicating about somewhere around seven channels for the Olympics. I just watched last night (that woulkd be Sunday here, SG time) the Women's Team Table Tennis Finals. I think this is one of the more significant matches for Singaporeans, as many posters here show the picture of Li J. W. She is one of SG's hope to bring home the Gold. Unfortunately, though she gave her best effort, team China was just that a bit better, taking home the gold for both the Singles and Team Women's Table Tennis match.

Anyway, aside from that, I haven't really been keeping tabs on the Olympics. Not a big fan, sorry to say. It's just not my thing.

Aside from that, I've been continuously struggling with the different LSS (Last Song Syndrome) from the Disney channel. The two-year-old David, my godchild and our housemates' kid, is always watching Disney channel shows. That's the only decent channel we have here that is "safe" for a kid.

So let's see, the latest ones that I have are "You/ are my/ bestfriend/" (I think from Little Einsteins) and "tivotivotivotivotivotivo" (from Tivo the Gift Dragon). Perpetual Favorites are of course the ones from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (Hotdog, hotdog, hotdiggidy-dog...) and My Friends Tigger and Pooh (Hmmm... How does that "Think" song go again?)

Hrrmmm... Okay, I think I should move on....

My readable reads
I've also been catching up on my reading about Marvel's latest crossover event, the Secret Invasion. I've purposely been holding back on reading, at least until I can get a copy of at least five comics titles included in this story arc... Reading just one issue of a great story arc at a time just leaves me hanging and I just can't stand it. I would rather re-read the earlier storylines I have completed than to be left hanging like that.

So while waiting for the five latest Secret Invasion comics titles, I've been reading the Dragons of a Fallen Sun, volume one of the War of Souls trilogy. Admittedly, I stopped reading Dragonlance novels after reading the original trilogy, Twins trilogy, and the Dragons of Summer Flame. But, hey, I bought the book for a very good bargain price, so I might as well read it...

Money Watch
We've been also monitoring the SGD to PHP exchange rate. After an all-year high of PHP33 to SGD1 about a month ago (see related post here), the exchange rate dropped to just PHP31 to SGD1. If we were looking for a good time to remit to the Philippines, that was it. Anyway, while skeptical about the exchange rate to return to the PHP33-level, we're still hoping to get a slight increase. Perhaps just about PHP32, in order to maximize the remittance value. :)


Uh-oh. Something came up again. :( Damn 24/7 support! Oh well, at least I was able to get this far. I'll just have to postpone the rest of my posts for now.

The Dark Knight - an alternate review

It's been a very busy week for me but we finally managed to squeeze in The Dark Knight in our tight schedules! And I must say.... WHOAAA!!! Perhaps the best (or sickest) Batman movie of all time! (Or at least, the best so far!)



I've been watching all the reviews lately about the Dark Knight and almost always we go down to the comparison between Heath Ledger and Jack Nicholson. Perhaps fuelled by Ledger's death, I actually see more "Joker" hypes and reviews rather than Batman. Hmmm... Anyway... Personally, I don't think they should be compared, with one actor being better than the other. They did the best they could for what the movie calls for. It's not just because of the actors, but the movie themselves; you cannot say one movie is better than the other simply because they are totally different movies.

Years ago, when the first Batman movie hit the bigscreen, Nicholson's Joker was a bad-ass and perhaps the best villain movie character during that decade. Joker's agenda was a bit simplistic, but Nicholson's portrayal is appropriate for the tone of the entire movie. This, in part, makes the 1989 Batman one of the timeless and classic superhero movies.



Almost twenty years later, came the Dark Knight. The world has gone through a lot of changes. The Middle East crisis, killer tidal waves, 9/11, and so many others. The people's world view was forever changed. Just when you thought things couldn't get worse, they do. Yep, it seems times were simpler back then. So Dark Knight (and Batman Begins), in a way, reflects our world view. Hence, we see a darker, mob-ruled, criminal-infested Gotham, with its sicker villains, mob-controlled cops (which are quite prevalent in the later movies, not commonly seen in the older Batman movies), and the twisted agenda of the Joker -- robbing banks, ruling the city, controlling mobs just doesn't do it anymore; dubbing himself as an agent of chaos, he wants nothing more than total chaos and anarchy; total annihilation of established order. Whatever you want to call it.



Anyway, enough comparison... They're both good anyway... :)

Seeing Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, I now understand why some critics are expecting him to win some awards. He's damn scary! He leaves no doubt as to why this psychopathic criminal genius is one of the best (if not the damned best) archvillain of Batman.

Now, aside from Heath Ledger, there are other reasons why The Dark Knight is a great movie.

I really like the cool new gadgets provided by Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman). From the new armor, to the Batcycle ejecting-from-the-Batmobile. And don't forget about his sonar mapping thingamajjig; converting all cellphones in Gotham city into a kind of a sonar mapping device, then feeding all of the info to a central device that only Fox has access to. With this contraption, Batman can "see" the entire city, enabling him to track down the Joker as soon as he started broadcasting. Of course, this was a bit too powerful for one man to possess, so Fox had to destroy it in the end.

Alfred (Michael Caine) is a fully revamped character in the last two movies. He is not just your ordinary English butler; he's an English butler slash medic slash veteran bounty hunter slash wise old man slash father-figure of sorts. He has a bigger role here than in any of the other previous movies. He fully understands what Batman means to Gotham. What Batman needs to be to Gotham. That Batman doesn't need to be a hero; he needs to be something more. He's role is significant to Batman's transformation into the Dark Knight. Best quote in the movie that in a way sums up the movie is the one said by Alfred:

Endure. You can be the outcast. You can make the choice that noone else will face: the RIGHT choice.

And with that, Batman made the choice; to protect what Gotham has gained through the work of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) before he became Two-Face, Batman will become the villain, the target, the scapegoat. What the 28 Laws of Power calls the Cat's Paw, if I remember correctly.

Harvey Dent, as District Attorney, worked hard to clean the streets of Gotham. He was what Batman was waiting for; the "beacon of light", the "white knight". One who is just and uncorruptible -- well, at least before the accident and how Joker pushed him. I guess that's the problem when everything is dependent on the reputation of one man. One blemish, one mistake and poof. Everything will go to waste. Realizing this, Batman made that choice and took the blame for everything that Two-Face has done. Dent must remain pure and perfect. Never got his hands dirty. Damn! I really love that part! Making the hard choices. The defining moment of being more than just a hero. :)

Dang! I guess that's it for now. It's been quite a long post already. All in all, I love the Dark Knight. One of the best movies of all time.

Blogging: Related Posts

I always wanted to include a 'Related Posts' widget at the end of each post item. Thanks to a short reprieve, I was able to finally implement this in my blogs in Blogger.

So let's start:

1. Backup the existing template. (In Blogger/Blogspot, it should be in Layout > Edit Html.

2. Within the page header (i.e., section enclosed in the <HEAD> and </HEAD> tags, insert the code below. I suggest inserting it right before the </HEAD> tag.

<script type="text/javascript">
//<![CDATA[
var relatedTitles = new Array();
var relatedTitlesNum = 0;
var relatedUrls = new Array();

function related_results_labels(json) {
for (var i = 0; i < json.feed.entry.length; i++) {
var entry = json.feed.entry[i];
relatedTitles[relatedTitlesNum] = entry.title.$t;
for (var k = 0; k < entry.link.length; k++) {
if (entry.link[k].rel == 'alternate') { relatedUrls[relatedTitlesNum] = entry.link[k].href;
relatedTitlesNum++;
break; }}}
}

function removeRelatedDuplicates() {
var tmp = new Array(0);
var tmp2 = new Array(0);
for(var i = 0; i < relatedUrls.length; i++) { if(!contains(tmp, relatedUrls[i])) {
tmp.length += 1;
tmp[tmp.length - 1] = relatedUrls[i];
tmp2.length += 1;
tmp2[tmp2.length - 1] = relatedTitles[i];
}
}
relatedTitles = tmp2;
relatedUrls = tmp;
}

function contains(a, e) {
for(var j = 0; j < a.length; j++) if (a[j]==e) return true;
return false;
}

function printRelatedLabels() {
var r = Math.floor((relatedTitles.length - 1) * Math.random());
var i = 0;
document.write('<ul>');
while (i < relatedTitles.length && i < 20) {
document.write('<li><a href="' + relatedUrls[r] + '">' + relatedTitles[r] + '</a></li>');
if (r < relatedTitles.length - 1) {
r++;
} else {
r = 0;
}
i++;
}
document.write('</ul>');
}
//]]>
</script>


3. With the "Expand Widgets" checked, under the 'Blog1' widget, look for the lines:

<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<data:postLabelsLabel/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>

and replace them with the following:

<b:if cond='data:post.labels'>
<data:postLabelsLabel/>
<b:loop values='data:post.labels' var='label'>
<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/></a><b:if cond='data:label.isLast != "true"'>,</b:if>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<script expr:src='"/feeds/posts/default/-/" + data:label.name + "?alt=json-in-script&callback=related_results_labels&max-results=10"' type='text/javascript'/>
</b:if>
</b:loop>
</b:if>

4. Save the Template.

5. Navigate to Layout --> Add Page Elements, and add an HTML/Script element, name it as "Related Posts" (or whatever) which includes the following lines of code:

<script type="text/javascript">
removeRelatedDuplicates();
printRelatedLabels();
</script>

6. Return to Layout --> Edit HTML, check Expand Widgets, and look for the 'Related Posts' element you just added. It should be similar to the following:

<b:widget id='HTML13' locked='false' title='Related Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

7. Insert the lines in bold below. This additional two lines ensure that the "Related Posts" widget will only load when the user is currently viewing one post only.

<b:widget id='HTML13' locked='false' title='Related Posts' type='HTML'>
<b:includable id='main'>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
<!-- only display title if it's non-empty -->
<b:if cond='data:title != ""'>
<h2 class='title'><data:title/></h2>
</b:if>
<div class='widget-content'>
<data:content/>
</div>
<b:include name='quickedit'/>
</b:if>
</b:includable>
</b:widget>

And there you have it. Whenever you view your individual posts, you should be able to see the "Related Posts" widget somewhere in the page (depends on where you put it).

Thanks for reading!

Must-see videos and movies wishlist

I guess I'm in that mode again in which I want to watch a slew of videos and movies. As of this time, these are the ones that I would really, really, REALLY want to watch...

WWE RAW, June 23, 2008 Episode

This is the episode when WWE conducted its annual draft lottery. That is, WWE superstars (i.e., wrestlers) go from one brand to another. I already know the results, which be read from the official WWE website, but I'd still want to see the action.

Well, believe it or not, I believe draft lotteries are rigged. That is, it is scripted and the results are already planned; the sole purpose of this draft is to shake things up, developing new storylines, new rivalries, etc. It's actually a good thing. :)

Of course in this year's lottery, I must say that nothing shook things more than Triple H being drafted into Smackdown! And of course, where Triple H goes, his favorite announcer, WWE Hall of Famer "JR" Jim Ross goes with him.

Anyway, I guess I'll just have to wait for re-runs to get this one. :)

---

WWE Night of Champions (June 29, 2008)

Okay, fine, another WWE video. What can I say? I don't get my weekly dose of wrestling video like back home. :) I always want to watch WWE Pay-Per-Views anyway, and this is no exception.

Same thing here. I know the results, but I still want to watch it anyway. :) Now that's a fan! Hehehe :)

Like the one before, I'll wait for reruns.

---

The Dark Knight, opens July 17, 2008

You have to be crazy if you do not want to see this one! Finally, the much anticipated sequel to Batman Begins (and the animated film Batman Gotham Night) will be showing next week.

You don't have to be a Batman fan to watch this, right? I mean this is the Batman franchise movie we've been waiting for. The Chrstian Bale Batman is the best Batman we've seen in years. (Yup, I'm not a fan of those George Clooney Batman flicks.)

Or for the more sentimental people out there, would you not want to see the very last movie starring Heath Ledger? Rumors in E!News and The Daily Ten (yeah, I watch those. So what? Hehe) indicate a stellar, Oscar- or Emmy-worthy performance by the actor. Based from the teasers, trailers and posters, Ledger's portrayal of Joker is the darkest and freakiest Batman villain I've seen. Definitely a favorite pick in the "Best Villain" category.

Not showing yet, so no choice but to sit tight until then.

SG Toy & Comic Convention '08 - Batman Gotham Knight

We were able to see the feature film Batman Gotham Knight at the last day of the Singapore Toy and Comic Convention 2008 (Sunday, June 29, 2008).

Apparently, there are not enough Batman fans here in Singapore.


There were only about 60 seats set up in front of the stage and were cordoned off; these seats are reserved for those who have tickets. For some reason, around 10 minutes before the screening time, there were only about 4 people (a family by the looks of it) seated. God knows where the rest of the ticket holders went.

The organizers then decided to let the people lined up outside of the cordoned area to take their seats. Still, we were not able to take our seats because there were just too many people there.

After the first of the six interlocking films, though, people started leaving. We then took that opportunity to talk to the organizers so that we could take the seats just vacated. :) So I enjoyed the rest of the film seated comfortably in front of the stage...still with that nagging question why did these people leave? Did they not like the film? Were they bored? Did it not suit there taste?

So let's see....

Chapter 1: Have I got a story for you
This chapter recounts how Batman is perceived by three kids. The film emphasizes how the children's (in this case, skater kids) wild imagination caused them to see Batman differently; one kid saw him as a living shadow, the other as a giant humanoid Bat (more bat than human,with claws, wings, and all), and another as a heavy robot of sorts.

As it turns out, Batman is still in pursuit of the villain and have reached the skating rink where all of the kids above are holed up. Batman (this time shown in his classic costume similar to the one in Batman The Animated Series), bloody and messy at this point and confused further by the smokescreen from the villain, was saved by one of the kids (i.e. the kid who missed all of the action earlier) by clubbing his skateboard at the back of the head of the enemy. The kid was understandbly stunned at his encounter with the real Batman and shouted "Man, have I got a story for you!"

It was towards the end of this chapter that people started leaving and that's when we took our seats. Judging from the number of people who left, I'd say they are not Batman fanatics for sure.

The story itself is okay, showing a typical Batman encounter through the eyes of several witnesses. Sounds cliche? Maybe. But the big let down IMHO is the artwork. Too much emphasis was given to how the kids in the story perceive Batman; the background is done well enough, but the characters are depicted using very simple drawings, big bodies with small disproportionate extremities, the style of which is something that you'd expect from a show on a kid's or baby's channel or something.

That's the bad news. The good news is, things can only go up from here.

Chapter 2: Crossfire
Batman delivers "The Man in Black" (presumably the same villain from chapter 1) to Lt. Gordon, who then instructs Detectives Cris Allen and Anna Ramirez to deliver him to the Arkham Asylum. After the delivery, while disputing about whether Batman can be trusted or not, they find themselves caught in the crossfire between turf / gang wars between the "Russian" and Sal Maroni. One rocket to the detectives' car later, Allen finds himself flung by Batman on top of a nearby building to save him from the explosion while Ramirez is knocked out on the street below. Batman then dispatches the remaining Russian gang members while Maroni held Ramirez hostage. Batman quickly disarmed the man who, perhaps out of fatigue or fear (of Batman), or both, stumbled and sat slumped on the ground. Batman then leaves the scene, apparently gaining the trust of the two detectives.

Nice thing about this is that it picks up right after the encounter in the first part. It shows the typical process of Batman's crimefighting: Batman looks for crook, Batman catches crook, Batman sends crook to the police. A "vigilante"of sorts tolerated and trusted by Gordon because of results; with more criminals jailed, Gotham is slowly and steadily becoming a safer place, one taken out crook at a time.

And this time, the artwork is certainly much better than the first one. Batman is now in his sleek, streamlined costume while the rest are (compare to chapter 1) better drawn and more realistic (no disproportionate limbs and bodies, or anything like that). Special effects are great, especially the explosion and the ensuing fires. Perhaps the most picturesque part here is when the ominous (almost devilish) outline of Batman steps out of the flames as he stares down Maroni.

All in all, great chapter two!

Chapter Three: Field Test
We find Bruce Wayne walking into the lab of Lucius Fox (i.e. the former research head and current CEO of Wayne Enterprises, played by Morgan Freeman in Batman Begins). Fox shows him a prototype of a shockwave sensor that generates an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) strong enough to deflect bullets. Bruce decides to test the shield when he dives into the Russian - Sal Maroni feud once again. A bullet deflected by his shield inadvertently hits one of the gang members whom Batman then sent to the nearest hospital. Batman decided not to use the shield. "It works too well. I'm willing to put my life on the line to do what I have to do. But it has to be mine. No one else's."

This part shows Bruce Wayne's morality goes. He is willing to risk his life but not willing to risk others'. Now we see the line that he is not willing to cross in pursuit of justice.

Artwork here and fight sequence is great as well. But I guess, it is just too "anime" for me. My problem with this one is how his face was drawn. Bruce Wayne is drawn in the typical anime-style shape; heart-shaped head, large Anime-eyes, with matching long hair to boot. But the voice doesn't appear to match well with the face. We see a young, clean, fresh, playboy-looking character but has a deep husky voice that we all know and love. (BTW, Batman is voiced by Kevin Conroy, the same one who voiced Batman in most DC animated series).

Aside from that, this is another excellent chapter in the film.

Chapter Four: In Darkness Dwells
Batman enters the sewers as he follows the trail of an 8-foot lizard man, Killer Croc, who abducted one O'Fallon down to the crypts, the sixth of the high-profile abductions this week. He eventually finds Croc and knocks him out, but not before being bitten by Croc and thereby infecting him with fear-inducing toxins; an intelligence report reveals that Croc is one of the subjects of the Scarecrow's fear inversion program. The experiments pumped Croc full of toxins making him more twisted and dangerous than before.

Batman then faced Scarecrow and his toxin-induced cronies to rescue O'Fallon. One methane gas explosion later, Batman finds himself on the side of a river dam. Gordon then shows up in a chopper to take knocked out O'Fallon. Although injured, Batman refuses Gordon's offer to help and jumps down to the river below as the chapter closes.

The story is fairly straightforward. No mystery here. Just follow the trails into the sewers, rescue the victim while pounding the bad guys. One good thing that it does is, with Batman being severly injured, it serves as a springboard for the next chapter.

Chapter Five: Working Through Pain
While Batman stumbles his way back through the sewers, we get flashbacks from a time when Bruce was trained by an exotic Indian woman, Cassandra, in order to deal with pain. She taught him for months on how to work through pain, how to put it in its place.

One night, after defeating men who tried to harm her, Cassandra sent Bruce away, since he has learned everything he wanted to learn, but also reveals that the pain that Bruce has is beyond her abilities; that his path is leading him down a path that he desires. Whatever. Quite the mumbo-jumbo, ain't it?

Back to the present, as Alfred came to the location where Batman is, he finds him his hands full of firearms found among the trash. And thus, hints the source, the true nature of Bruce Wayne's pain... And off to the final chapter.

Chapter Six: Deadshot
Bruce Wayne remembers the time when his parents are gunned down. He has held on to the firearms that he had found; he admired them although he has no intention of using them.

BTW, Bruce Wayne here, with such a very prominent chin, reminds me of that classic anime, Slam Dunk.

With the power of the crimelords declining, the Russian hired Deadshot to take "him" out. The leads fed to the police made them to believe that the target was Lt. Gordon, but Deadshot only used him as a pawn in order to lure out his real target: Batman himself. He eventually knocks out Deadshot after a short battle on the train.

Back in the Wayne Manor, Bruce reveals to Alfred that the fight with Deadshot was similar to the night when his parents were killed.

"It seems I've been trying to stop those two bullets all my life. It's a fool's dream, Alfred. Sometimes I think I should just be done with it."

"Perhaps, you are right, sir. But something tells me that you have a deeper purpose."

And with that, Bruce looks up into the clouds in the night sky glowing with the Bat Signal.

The end. Or rather, the beginning. Off to Dark Knight!


As much as I hate to say it, unless you like and/or familiar with the Batman mythos, you may find the movie lacking and could not appreciate the tiny things that have been put in place within the film.

Perhaps the sides of Batman that have been shown on this film will prove significant when the Dark Knight comes out later this month. I dunno (but I sincerely hope so). If so, then everything should come full circle, and we will have a trilogy of sorts (Batman Begins, Batman Gotham Knight, Dark Knight).

This film is not for everybody, as evidenced by the number of scowling faces I saw after the movie. :( Personally, I enjoyed the film, but hey, I'm biased; being the comic and movie collector that I am, I am inclined to like the film anyway.

Watch the movie, let me know what you think.

Blogging: Using Expandable Posts

I had some time to spare and I used to apply expandable posts on our blogs. For the meantime, I have applied the required changes both here and in Che's blog.

It took me a while to discover exactly how to do this. So in the spirit of sharing, I might as well include the how-to of expandable posts using the "new" blogger format.

Assumptions:
This is done using the new Blogger; hence this is not a "walkthrough" for other web publishing services, such as WordPress. Regardless of the publisher, when you get down to it, it is all HTML anyway, so while the steps may not exactly be the same (as you will see later on), the principle should be the same.

Outline of Steps:
1. Editing the Conditional CSS
2. Adding the "Read More" links
3. Adding Blog Post template

Important: Regardless of whether you are new to this or not, please BACKUP your current template. For Blogger/Blogspot, this should be in Layout -> Edit HTML, then click on Download Full Template.

Once everything is set, here we go...

Step 1: CONDITIONAL CSS

First of all, we need to define within the template the "fullpost" span class. The behavior of the fullpost class is simple: if it's an item (i.e., one blog post only), display everything; otherwise, do not display the text.

1.1. Locate the </head> tag.

1.2. Immediately above/before the tag, add / modify the following code within the <style> tags

<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>

1.3. Save the template.


Step 2: READ MORE LINK

You are, of course, not restricted to use the words "Read more". You can opt to use something like "Click here to read the rest of the entry" or as short as "..."

2.1. For blogger users, click on "Expand Widgets".

2.2. Locate the line <data:post.body/>

2.3. Immediately below/after the above tag, add the following code:

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url' target='_blank'>Read more...</a>
</b:if>

2.4. Save the template.


Step 3: POST TEMPLATE

Now comes the editing of the actual posts. Each post would have to include <span class="fullpost">. To make life easier, Blogger included the Post Template under Settings > Formatting, so that each new post would include the above tags.

3.1. Go to Settings > Formatting, then scroll down to Post Template.

3.2. Enter the following code:

Summary here <span class="fullpost">
The rest of the post here </span>

3.3. Save Settings.


Just be mindful of the placement of the fullpost tag within your next posts and that's it.

With this, you can highlight more of your most recent posts within the main page. I remember at one point in which I had to limit the posts displayed to five or below, depepnding on the length of my post. With this one in place, your main page will act as the "index", enabling the reader to browse through the contents of your blog without actually going through entire unwanted entries.

In case of questions, just let me know.

The Incredible Hulk Movie!

We just watched the movie earlier today. Simply amazing! Hands down much better than the Hulk back in 2003 and, best of all, there is a promise of a continuity among the succeeding Marvel movie franchises in the future!

Graphics are astoundingly realistic. They sure made good use of those powerful computers to create the graphics; Hulk's skin shows texture and a very high level of detail. This can be clearly seen in the two major battles that took place; Hulk vs. General Ross' (William Hurt) forces on the Culver University field (too bad this clip did not show the sonic tanks), and Hulk vs. Abomination somewhere downtown New York.



While it takes off mainly from where the 2003 Hulk movie ended, with Bruce Banner (Edward Notron) getting "angry" in the forests somewhere in South America, Brazil I think, the plot is completely independent of the previous one. If they wanted to package this movie to be not a sequel while still continuing the plot from the first movie without a toal reboot of the Hulk origin, then they made a pretty good job.

The connection between the two movies is very loose, as can be seen from the flashbacks. Also, there are minor differences such as Betty Ross (Liv Tyler) seeing the Bruce transform to Hulk for the first time in this movie (note that Gen. Ross commented that now she will see, referring to Bruce's transformation into the Hullk).

Don't want to reveal the rest of the plot for those who haven't seen it yet, so I'll stop the plot analysis here. :)

The cameos are also great. Three cameos I think are worth mentioning: Like most Marvel movies, Stan Lee is there again -- this time, unlike his previous ones, his cameo was of significant importance since that led to Gen. Ross to finding Banner in South America! Also there was Lou Ferrigno, who was the original Hulk of the 70's show, posing as security guard bribed by Banner. Lastly, Robert Downey Jr., as Tony Stark, aka Iron Man.

That last cameo promises, finally, a continuity among the Marvel movies. Crossovers and guest appearances are common in Marvel comics. Why should Marvel movies be any different? Imagine Iron Man taking on the Hulk, Fantastic Four teaming up with Spider-Man, Avengers taking on the Masters of Evil, whatever. The possibilities are endless.

Official word is that the Avengers movie is slated to be release by 2011. Is this the team that Iron Man was referring to? Could be, but the roster would be a little different; in the comics, the Hulk was one of the original Avengers, so I don't see the screenplay following the "canonical" origin of the team.

Many elements are also taken from the Marvel Universe comics but have been changed to suit this movie. Weapon Plus, for example, is part of Wolverine's mythos, being the program that created Weapon X (Wolverine) and others such as Weapon I (aka Captain America).

Also, Spider-Man fans would recognize the Incredible Hulk poster as a nod to one of the most iconic covers of the Amazing Spider-Man.

Stark Industries is of mentioned (I'm still wondering if it's really the Avengers is what he was referring to; the Hulkbusters, I think, would have been a better fit, with him leading the charge wearing his Hulkbuster armor), as well as Nick Fury and SHIELD.

Maybe not the best movie out there, but IMHO one of the best storylines Marvel has created so far. And like most comic readers, I want good stories and this one is one of the better ones out there.

Getting sleepy now. I better get some rest. :)