Happy Halloween 2010

Happy Halloween !!

Last night, my boys attended their first Halloween party. It is organize by Da Vinci . One of my boys's friend from the music class is Da Vinci student, his mother ask me whether want to let my boys to join the party or not. Without hesitate, i told her i would love to let my boys experience it.

Two weeks ago, i found this costume for my boys.


Fearles the skeleton...


Cruz the Bat!!


the two brothers - Skeleton and the Bat!




posing with mummy before going to the party.






they said they want to ride their bikes to go to the party, they don't want daddy and mummy to sent them.





Fearles - the ghost rider? hahahhahahha


Cruz and his batman bike? hahahha

We reach there around 7pm+, the party start at 6.30pm. Initially, we are thinking leaving the kids at the center, let them have some food at the party and after that they will have games, then last they will go for the trick O treats. Me and hub plan after drop the boys at the center, we go for a quick dinner nearby then join them for the trick O treats, but once Fearles heard we are dropping them there and will leave for dinner, he start crying, holding my legs and told me he want to follow me. Even when i ask him, does he want to join the party or he want to go home, he told me he want to go home. :( :( :(. Cruz on the other hand, he just enjoy himself so much, he help himself with the food, and told me after light snack he want to join the game. We got no chance to sneak out, as Fearles just "keep an eye" on us. We stay for their game and trick O treats till the party finish only had our late late dinner at 10pm!!!



my crying baby Fearles....*sigh*



looks at all the kids.....






playing limbo rock..



listen to music and dance, and while the music stop, everyone have to stop.


Cruz is dancing happily



This is the last part which every kids can't wait for it, trick O treats. The thoughtful Margaret from the center, prepare each kids a very nice design goodies bags. Now ready to go for the trick O treats.


with Joshua, their friend from the music class.


look at the huge troupe ! We went to some of the kids house and those parent would like to participate, floor by floor to do the trick O treats.

We and some parents follow the kids and guide the kids to the house to collect the goodies. First house, my boys didn't get anything, too many kids and it's like so havoc and my boys don't know what to do and Cruz cried because he did not get any sweets!!! OMG!!!

So i took over the camera, let hub to help them for the goodies. ahhahahhahhahahhaha







look at the big boy, helping his two boys to get the goodies!




look at this sporting daddy, he put up a blue shopping bag and cut two hole in front and it just look like batman!!


i HEART this picture, can you see the tidbits and sweets are 'flying"? hahahhahaha,
I cannot look at the lens i just hold it up high and snap this, and "accidently" i got a nice one. LOL!

After visiting like 6 or 7 houses, we back to the centre, everyone are sweating and tired and happy with their loots. My boys had their second round helping. Cruz ate another 7 mini sausages, fried chicken and some drink, and now you can see some smile on Fearles's face already. When i ask him, does he want to go home? He said no, then i ask him, why he cried just now? He told me " I just blaff you, i no cried" *droll eyes*




look at their treats!!!

We all have a fun time, including me and hub. This is our first and this is a very good experience for us too. :)

Ricky Martin's autobiography: Leaked details


Tuesday is the big launch of Ricky Martin's coming out autobiography "Me" which will get as big a public platform as any bookseller could want: A full hour on The Oprah Show, to air also on Tuesday, in which the singer will offer his first official interview since coming out as a gay man.



Appropriately, a Spanish language version of the book, titled "Yo", will also be released Tuesday, and that night Univision is airing an hour-long Spanish-language interview with Maria Elena Salinas on "Aqui y Ahora" at 7pm EST.

Details of the book had been closely guarded --- until now.

A Costco store in San Juan apparently didn't abide by the release date guidelines and put the book on store stands Friday.  Puerto Rico's Primera Hora got a hold of a copy.

Here are some translated excerpts from the article:
Ricky Martin always knew he was gay. He began to feel it as far back as his adolescence when he felt intimidated before his friends for being a virgin.  Even though his first sexual experience was with a woman, in his autobiography "Yo", he openly confesses it is men who arouse his animal instincts.
"Since I can remember, I have felt a very strong attraction to other men and, although I can say that I have also come to feel a lot of attraction and a lot of chemistry towards women, it is men who ultimately awaken what is instinctive, the animal in me."
Martin says that the fear of being rejected and the fear of his career going down the tubes was what kept him in the closet, despite family members and close friends being accepting of his sexual identity.
"Socially, there are so many prejudices against homosexuals that I thought nobody would understand me, that I'd be rejected, since those are the codes I heard and learned as a child. So since my adolescence, when these desires I first began to manifest themselves, I had to deal with this great conflict between my emotions and my thoughts."
It wasn't until his 30's, Martin writes, that he began to feel comfortable with his sexuality but, even then, the singer admits he began to enjoy the 'spice' of keeping his sexual encounters secret.
He didn't know how he would say it, but he wanted to say it, so he began to loosen the ropes little by little. The provocative video from the opening of his "White and Black" concerts, in which he appeared with words painted on his body such as "accept yourself" and "discover yourself" was the start of his coming out of the closet.

But it was the birth of his children, Mateo and Valentino, that gave him the final push . "When I held them in my arms for the first time, I not only realized just how simple and beautiful life could be, but I felt the need to be transparent with them," says [Martin], who establishes his own commitment to defend the human rights of gays, lesbians and transgender people. He rejects discriminatory words such as "maricón", "puto" and "pato" [words that can be interchangeably translated as "fag" in areas of Latin America].
In the book, Martin also describes what was going through his mind when he came out on March 29th of this year by pushing a button and simply sending a Tweet.
[Martin] says that as soon pressed the button "send" he shut down the computer and went to his room to sleep for half an hour, but [he says] curiosity killed the cat. He then called a friend and asked her to look at his Twitter time-line and tell him what was happening.  Then he experienced more relief.  "She said, 'Kiki, it's pure love..."

"And then all that fear I felt, the fear many people have at the moment they come out of the closet, it was just in my head.  I know that maybe this is not the case with others when they decide to do it - there are those who are faced with a painful wall of misunderstanding and rejection - but I can say my own experience was nothing but positive and empowering," he says.
El Nuevo Dia shares passages in which Martin describes his first romantic relationship with a man with a "radio journalist and DJ from Los Angeles".

"We met at a radio station and from the moment we saw each other it was like a great encounter between souls, at least for me.  I was traveling out of Los Angeles and went to the station for an interview.  The moment I opened the door to the studio, I found myself face to face with the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen," narrates the Puerto Rican singer in his biography.

The relationship occurred at the end of 1993 when Martin was about to join the cast of "General Hospital" and ended some time later when the couple realized that it couldn't survive Martin's constant touring.  Martin says he offered to end his music career and perhaps let the world know he was gay but says that his partner was the one who convinced him that he should not cut his career short even if it meant and end to the relationship.

Martin apparently also puts to rest a question repeatedly raised by gossip magazines when it comes to his current domestic situation: He indicates he does not have a current partner and is raising his children on his own.

He also only addresses his relationship with Mexican news anchor and actress Rebeca de Alba - a relationship that played out in public for some time even as rumors swirled around Martin that he was gay - without directly mentioning her name.

He also talks about Barbara Walters asking him if he was gay - and his denial.

Martin, who was featured on a groundbreaking Fathers Day People en Español cover posing with his twin boys back in June, spends the later part of the book describing the road to becoming a father.

In the closing chapter, Martin says that writing the book taught him to embrace and love his entire life, with it's ups and downs.

"I think everyone should accept the life they were given," he says, ". That doesn't mean they shouldn't try to live it as fully as they want to live it,but - in the end - what matters is to accept yourself, to love yourself, to be happy and to do good."

What's next: Martin has been hunkered down working on his next album, which features songs in English and Spanish a la Shakira.  For the project, he has reunited with producer Desmond Child who also produced "Living la Vida Loca".

A new single, "The Best Thing About Me is You" featuring Joss Stone, debuts on Ryan Seacrest's radio show this Monday.  You can hear the FULL SONG here.  The Spanish version of the song, "Lo Mejor de Mi Vida Eres Tu" features Natalia Jimenez. :30 second clip here.

Related:
  • Ricky Martin on Twitter here
  • Ricky Martin's official site here
Reactions:
    Previously:

    Steven Mackin, remembered


    Four years ago today my friend Steven Mackin passed away from Erwing Sarcoma at the age of 27. He thought he had beat the rare form of cancer a few years earlier when he'd gone through surgery and chemotherapy but when it came back it was stronger than ever and took his life in a mere few months.

    When the cancer first struck, Steven had been living in San Francisco and loving it.  The surgery left him with the need to use crutches in order to walk and forced him to relocate back to his hometown of Bardstown, Kentucky.

    Although Steven just adored his mom Sheila and loved his family, it was hard for him to go back to live in Bardstown.  I remember the hours we spent chatting and talking about his desire to move on with life and move somewhere else: San Francisco, Miami, Las Vegas.  Somewhere where he could continue his life as a young gay man which was interrupted so suddenly by the cancer diagnosis in San Francisco.

    Personally, I have never met anyone who took more pictures of himself.  Maybe it was a way for Steven to constantly remind himself he was a survivor.

    He also loved this blog, at least in it's earlier form, and a couple of months before he knew the cancer was back we had a conversation in which he made me promise that if he passed away I would talk about him here, show people his pictures, make sure he wasn't forgotten.

    So every year on this date, I write about Steven and share his life with the world - and share his pictures.

    He was just an amazing, beautiful man and it's still tremendously sad he is no longer with us.

    Steven also left behind an incredible testimony of his fight with cancer in the form of a LiveJournal which he very appropriately called "Things I've Found in My Butt".   It's an incredibly touching, irreverent, funny, maddening, sad and moving diary of his life in Bardstown.

    In 2007, the Associated Press featured Steven's story based on the writings he left behind.

    It's an amazing read if you have some time on your hands, and a living testament of the great Steven Mackin.

    Oh, and, by the way, Steven Mackin IS prettier than you!

    Previously:

      He who mistreats a woman is a fag


      When it comes to the usage in Latin America of Spanish-language terms that most people would deem homophobic, I admit sometimes I am left feeling a bit flummoxed.

      There is, for example, the song "Puto" by the legendary Mexican rock band Molotov. The literate translation of the title is "Faggot" and it has a quaint chorus that says "matarile al maricón" ("kill the fag").

      But whenever I've called it a homophobic song I've gotten push-back from people who say that in the song's context "Puto" does not really refer to gays but, instead, to the powers that be. And, to be sincere, I partly get it. The band itself has said as much and, in the face of criticism, insists on playing it live during their tours.  But even if "fag" can be contextualized to mean something else in a song, do their fans make the distinction?

      These thoughts come to mind today in light of a new campaign launched today by the National Women Services Ministry of the Chilean government (SERNAM):



      SAY WHAT? Yes, the Chilean government says a "fag" is he who mistreats a woman (official government announcement here).

      Speaking to La Tercera, Carolina Schmidt Zaldivar, Director of SERNAM, explained:
      [Domestic] violence is based on the abuse of power and a poor understanding of what true masculinity is.  Does it make you more of a macho man to mistreat, beat up or denigrate a woman?  The answer is clear: He who mistreats a woman is a lesser man... let's say things as they are.
       I do think the Minister makes a relevant point which actually is also pertinent to the discussion about the Molotov song: The Mexican rock band and the Chilean government might argue that "maricón" and "puto" is in no way related to "fagness" but they both admit they use the homophobic terminology as a means to question a man's masculinity.

      Here is what complicates things somewhat: The first man you see in the video is Chilean soccer referee Pablo Pozo who has previously denounced soccer fans calling him a fag at several games and directly challenged homophobia in one of the most homophobic sports in the world.

      The second man is television personality and talk show host Jordi Castell who is one of the few openly gay personalities on Chilean television.  They both say they decided to participate in the campaign as opponents of domestic violence.

      The ads also have the backing of the country's leading LGBT rights organization, the Homosexual Movement of Integration and Liberation (MOVILH), who tweeted the following tonight:
      With the SERNAM campaign things are left clear: Relatives and people you know who are gay aren't fags. The man who beats up his woman is. 
      MOVILH, really?

      There are a couple of things that strike me as very wrong with this brief statement. MOVILH lets SERNAM use the word "faggot" in a campaign and backs it up.  They also buy into the meme that 'fagness' can be used to denigrate a man's masculinity.

      In addition, the campaign assumes all domestic violence in a heterosexual partnership comes from the man, which is not always the case.

      One Chilean LGBT rights organization is not having any of it.  Speaking tonight on Radio Bio Bio, Marcelo Aguilar of Acción Gay said the campaign was discriminatory and questioned whether the message would be received as intended.

      Tonight we have an answer to that: The term "maricón" [fag] became the #1 trending topic on Twitter in South America tonight thanks to SERNAM.

      I personally think it's an awful campaign, it elicits unintended consequences, and gives people license to use the word "maricón" as if it wasn't anything bad.

      But what's your take? Does the shock value make men respond? Is the campaign homophobic? Please let us know.

      Related:

      Kidlit Con 2010

      I'm back from Kidlit Con, and though my bags are still unpacked (long story), I'm ready to share everything I learned there (an equally long story). This is important stuff, so pay attention here, people!

      (Note: I didn't get any photos, so sorry about that. I doubt anyone took photos of me, either, but I'm still looking...)

      1. When conference planners tell you the walk between the bus/train station and the hotel is "close," don't believe them.

      On Friday, I flew into the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport and hopped the lightrail train into downtown Minneapolis. I enjoyed watching my surroundings as they flew by me. First I saw Fort Snelling, and was tempted for an instant to get off the train and take a tour (I love touring old buildings!) but thought that might not go over well with the people waiting for me to arrive at the hotel. Then I saw some place names that made me smile, like Minnehaha and Hiawatha. I saw a community garden whiz by, and plenty of non-descript buildings. People came and went off the lightrail, then the Minneapolis Metrodome came into view and it was my turn to step off the train.

      Then came the hike to the hotel. Two blocks north and at least a million blocks east, I walked and walked and walked and walked, lugging my...er, well..luggage. To be fair, it really wasn't a long walk, but it would have been much much easier without the suitcase rolling behind me. But I made it to the hotel, checked in, and met Kurtis Scaletta and Steve Brezenoff in the lobby. They were my official Minneapolis Welcoming Committee. Together we wandered back the way I had come until we made it to Open Book, the scene of the conference.

      2. You can learn a lot from celebrities, just not what they expect you to learn.

      That night we had about an hour of schmooze time, followed by an appearance of the Merry Sisters of Fate, which consists of Tessa Gratton, Maggie Stiefvater, and Brenna Yovanoff. They discussed critique groups and their weekly short story projects. Though the information they shared wasn’t applicable to my current situation (because I have a great critique group and am not interested in writing short stories anytime soon), I did learn a lot about public speaking from watching them. I was hoping some of what I learned would rub off on me the next day.

      3. There is such a thing as jetlag.

      Let’s just say that getting up at 7am Minneapolis time was REALLY EARLY in Elissa time.

      4. When things go well, it’s all a blur, but when things go bad...

      Our presentation was the third session of the day, so I spent the morning patiently waiting until it was my turn. And by “patiently” I mean…well, patiently. I waited for my nerves to kick in, but they never did. And when it was time to get up in front of that group, it was all a blur. A good blur. I do remember a few stray thoughts like “I wonder if that camcorder is rolling,” and “I hope I’m not saying something incredibly stupid,” but for the most part it was a smooth presentation, and Kurtis (my co-presenter) and I were poised and well-prepared.

      (And you thought things went horribly wrong. I can’t imagine where you got that idea. You really should pay better attention.)

      5. People say the darndest things.

      My favorites were along these lines:

      “Great presentation! Really!”

      “I learned SO much!”

      “I want to be just like you when I grow up!”

      “You’ve inspired me.”

      “You nailed that one.”

      I’m pleased to announce that not once did someone say “Please don’t come back.” They may have been thinking it, though. I’m not psychic, after all.

      6. It's not what you know, it's who you know. Wait...I mean, it’s not who you know, it’s what you know. Okay, it's really who you know AND what you know. Though none of it matters, really. You know?

      By far, my favorite thing about this conference was meeting some great kidlit people. It was great talking about writing and books with the people there. I met people I had always wanted to (hi, Alice Pope!), people I learned so much from because they let me listen in and participate in their conversations (hi, Dori Butler, Susan Taylor Brown, and Kellye Carter Crocker!) and online friends who are now friends IRL (hi, Blythe Woolston and Anne Marie!). And so so many others, who I wish I could name but then this post would be very very very long (hi, everyone else!).

      7. Kidlit Con is worth every penny.

      And then some.

      The Urian Anthology 1990-1999



      Redemption of a Decade in Philippine Cinema
      by Francis Joseph A. Cruz

      We are a sentimental people. We thrive in captured memories: photographs of ourselves backdropped by famous locations in lands we’ve visited, memorabilia from baptisms, weddings, and anniversaries, essential souvenirs from personally important events in our lives. We are constantly nagged by a fear that lest we have tangible representation of points of reminiscence, we tend to forget. And we do forget.

      Our country’s history is haunted constantly by recurring themes of failures, followed by great victories, followed by forgetting, followed by failures, and so on. We establish monuments, statues, and shrines. We name schools, streets and bridges by events or people that would supposedly inspire us to remember.

      We are a nation of forgetful people who constantly scrounge for objects to remember. That is our fault. That is also our virtue.

      Perhaps the biggest representation of this irony is our cinema. We are proud of it, sure. We rejoice when a Filipino film wins awards overseas. Unfortunately, jubilation is fleeting, if not totally hypocritical. We only recognize our cinema when it receives foreign accolades. Without them and quite horrifically, with them sometimes, our cinema is treated like junk – both symbolically and literally – thrown in un-airconditioned basements and warehouses to burn or rot.

      We remember the greats – the films of Brocka, Bernal, the two De Leons, and Conde – yet we are completely unaware that almost all of their films are inexistent in their original formats, most of their films are available in substandard digital copies, and some of their films are completely lost.

      What we have left are descriptions, perhaps two or three paragraphs at most, to have us remember these films which we absolutely have no memories of.

      Inasmuch as preserving films are important, the act of chronicling films, whether analytically or journalistically, is essential in recreating memories out of nothing, caused by the failure of a people that views cinema as a disposable thing of the present instead of a cultural stronghold.

      It is for this reason that Dr. Nicanor Tiongson should be commended for coming up with The Urian Anthology 1990-1999, a handsome yet heavyset tome containing memories – mostly good with sprinklings of some bad – of a contestable decade in Philippine cinema.

      It is an elegant book. Its cover, a sepia-hued collage of several scenes from films, mostly historical and involving national heroes portrayed by different actors and actresses, seduces the onlooker to reminisce the decade when glamorous historical epics apologized for the numerous titillating showcases and brash comedies that populated movie houses.

      The decade, described by Tiongson as the “best of times, the worst of times,” saw Philippine commercial cinema at its lowest, where studios literally and figuratively prostituted itself and its talents to battle imports. Yet the decade also showed glimmers of excellence, where filmmakers and even studios experimented and, in turn, paved the way for the seeds of what was to come the next decade.

      A quick skim through the pages reflects the differing facets that defined the decade. Stills from the numerous films adorn the margins of the book, detailing the highs and lows of cinema, where the same actors played national heroes and rapists, the same actresses portrayed dignified women and prostitutes.

      The reviews, selected by Tiongson from the Manunuri’s own roster of critics ranging from the enlightening like Hammy Sotto to the populists like Butch Francisco, are important because most of them reflect the critical reaction during the time of the film’s release, approximating, at least to the current reader, how a film was over-appraised or under-appraised.

      The various articles, academically rationalizing the pleasant and unpleasant movements and genres that emerged out of the dire economic circumstance of the industry, are springboards for discourse.

      The interviews of the decade’s defining filmmakers are also interesting, especially those of filmmakers who continue to work today who might have sacrificed some of the artistry they preach about to survive the dehumanizing rigors of present-day commercial filmmaking.

      For whatever its worth, for however critics and filmmakers acknowledge it now, the decade that Tiongson’s indispensible labor of love gives focus to, as exemplified by the collection of articles that seeks not to blindly honor but only to document the decade that passed, is an amalgam of colors, themes, moralities, and levels of artistry that Philippine cinema is evolving into.

      Little by little, as a subtle thread of a narrative develops as Tiongson’s carefully conceived book closes to a finish with filmographies of the decade, we acknowledge that Philippine cinema lives – through the good times and the bad.

      Personalities pass. Directors retire. Studios fold. Cinema continues, constantly reinventing itself, constantly changing. The Urian Anthology 1990-1991 is the suitable memoir for this nation of forgetful filmgoers to remember that cinema is of value and should be valued.

      I just hope that we do not become content with articles and pictures, and start watching these films, and if they are unavailable because of reasons beyond our control, start clamoring the government for a film archive to save us from the dangers of forgetting.

      (First published in Starweek Magazine, 24 October 2010)

      Nirwana Maju Banana Leaf Rice @ Bangsar

      On days that kitchen closed for weekend, we will go out for our dinner.

      Last week, hub said go for one nice banana leaf restaurant for dinner, this restaurant had been there for long time already, everytime when we passed by we never think of go in and eat. I had read a lot good review about this restaurant, and it always pack with people! Sometime you have to wait for the table, maybe this is one of the reason we didn't try till last week.



      Hub's white rice with some vegetables, this is is in the set.


      my bryani rice with chicken and three types of vegetables.
      They will give you some curry or dhal to put on your rice, but i opt that out.


      some side dishes we order...fried chicken, papadum ..


      dried curry mutton, very nice.


      another type fried chicken for the boys, non spicy.


      squid


      my boys would like to have roti canai. They serve roti canai on the banana leaf. hahahha
      my boys ask where is the plate? No plate? So i ask them to eat the roti canai with their hand.
      Food is good, service is good and the restaurant is clean but only one thing, it's a bit stuffy.

      i'm back. con % descuentos% !!!

      hola!


      Después de un veranito movido, unos cuantos viajes, proyectos, cambios y mudanzas, vuelvo a las andadas. :)


      Tenía muchas ganas de volver a estar aquí y debo decir que tengo una preciosa colección a punto de ver la luz, en mi línea, pero con toques nuevos. espero tener las fotos ya dentro de muy poquito.


      Y para daros la rebienvenida y aprovechando que el buen tiempo se va manteniendo y la tendencia marinera sigue ahí, todos los modelos de ancla que me quedan tienen un 40% de descuento!




      :)


      un abrazo fuerte a todos!

      Spain: Jacobo Piñeiro given maximum sentence in murder of gay couple after having been previously acquitted

      In March of last year I wrote about an unspeakable crime that took place in Vigo, Spain on January 13th, 2006.

      That early morning a man called Jacobo Piñeiro (right) killed a gay couple by stabbing them 57 times and then tried to set their apartment on fire to cover up the crime.

      In court, he acknowledged he had murdered the two men but argued that he had acted in defense after the couple had made unwanted sexual advances and threatened him if he didn't comply.  Piñeiro said he "panicked".

      Piñeiro's lawyer argued his client had become overcome by an "insurmountable fear of being raped and being murdered".  The good ol' 'panic defense'.

      It worked. A regional jury acquitted him of murder charges and, at first instance, also acquitted him of arson charges.  From my original post on that March 2009 verdict (link above):
      It was only after beginning to read the statement in court that the judge stepped in to correct some "errors" which led Piñerio to be charged in setting up the fire. When the verdict was read, jury members covered their face, perhaps already aware of the outrage that their verdict would elicit.

      He remains to be sentenced and is expected to be sent to prison for 15 to 20 years for setting the fire. If he hadn't been acquitted of the murder charges, he would have been sent to prison for up to 60 years.
      In other words, Piñeiro was acquitted of taking two lives but declared guilty of setting a building on fire.

      The worldwide outrage was fast.  There were protests in London and Spain and my friend Karlo organized a small protest here in New York outside the Spanish embassy.

      In October of last year, after the verdict was appealed, a higher court called it "defective, absurd, illogical and arbitrary" and ordered a new trial.

      On July 12th of 2010, Piñeiro walked out of jail a free man (video).  His attorneys argued that Spanish law forbid the authorities from holding anyone without being charged for more than three years and - since all previous charged had been invalidated - Piñeiro was released until the new trial. Obviously, the friends and family of the murdered couple were distraught and Piñeiro certainly didn't show any more resourcefulness than he showed in jail (check photo above).

      Good news: On September 26th a second jury found Piñeiro guilty of both murders as well as setting their place on fire and on October 14 he was sentenced to 25 to 58 years in jail, minus time already served- The maximum allowed time for the horrendous crime.

      It's always nice to learn that justice has been served.

      Lançamento do livro Sketchbooks!

      The Social Network (2010)



      The Social Network (David Fincher, 2010)

      David Fincher’s The Social Network opens inside a bar where Mark Zuckerberg (Jessie Eisenburg), future billionaire and inventor of Facebook, and Erica Albright (Rooney Mara), Zuckerberg’s very-near-future ex-girlfriend and inspiration for a chauvinistic blog post and website Facemash, are in the middle of a rather lopsided conversation with Zuckerberg leading in amount of words and ideas blabbered in a minute and Albright obviously trailing behind. The setting, although not very long ago, harkens to an era when face-to-face relations have not been threatened with obsolescence. The bar is packed. Talk is lively. That is pre-Facebook, pre-the era of living both real and cyber lives with equal importance, pre-breakups via change in the relationship status in profile pages.

      If the internet has made the world smaller, Facebook has turned the inhabitants of that shrunk world into codes and scripts that are all interconnected and worse, predictable. Facebook is not addictive because it was made to be addictive. It is addictive because it simulates the social aspect of modern human living. What Facebook members do in the website resembles, with hardly any artificial intervention, how we act and speak in real life. The fact that the inspirations for Facebook are ignited from the social systems of a university campus reflects the probable lapse in the so-called human free will that the success of the social networking website feeds from.

      All this is of course touched upon by Fincher tangentially. What The Social Network is more concerned with is Zuckerberg’s story, how a seemingly unlikable Harvard student turned billionaire in a span of a few years and changed the world. It is a story that plays very much like a corporate thriller, except that the characters, instead of being motivated primarily by the greed that consumes adults, are all twenty-something dreamers whose wealth and greatness are mere byproducts of wrestling with their own immaturities and lack of world-readiness. Thus, sprinkled in between plot-forwarding scenes and dialogue are the portraits that are not always patronizing of Zuckerberg’s character but enunciates his humanity, such as when his new-found fame got him a first stab at sex, or what results right after, when he sees his ex-girlfriend and attempts to utilize his fame to undo the insults resulting from his foolish brashness and insensitivity in the film’s opening scene.

      At the same time though, The Social Network does not attempt accuracy. In fact, the characters that Fincher and Sorkin created for the film are only stereotypes of who these personalities could be in real life. It is as if these characters are seen not through a biographer’s precise inquisitiveness or a journalist’s adherence to codes of ethics, but through their very own Facebook profiles, where tagged photos, albums, hobbies, interests, likes and relationship statuses are enough to create an idea of who the person behind the profile could be. In a way, the film relishes in the idea of seeing the characters, which are essentially film-friendly sketches of more complex personalities the audience might never have the privilege of knowing, interact as such, extended sketches of what these people were in Harvard: competitive jocks, unsociable nerds, negligible sidekicks, and objects of desire. Fantastically too, this is primarily how Facebook works, by encapsulating people in a few web pages consisting of pictures, basic information and relations, and allowing the casual onlooker a pre-conceived notion of the person via his profile, and thus, giving him the opportunity to judge via his response to the random Add Friend request.

      Despite its liberal interpretation of the Facebook founding story, turning what in my mind is a monotonous and maybe sometimes exciting amalgamation of boring lawsuits, endless nights in computer gibberish and mental masturbation, and utter lack of sexy sex, Fincher and Sorkin succeeds in romanticizing the unromantic, cinematizing the un-cinematic, and humanizing the potentially dehumanizing website that has turned Zuckerberg into an icon of this generation of millionaires and billionaires who’ve reached their economic peaks at the same time they’re discovering their own maturities. It’s a generation, as exemplified in one of the scenes where Zuckerberg is asked a question by an elderly lawyer but his mind is elsewhere and when scolded by the elderly lawyer delivers a witty retort that is impossible to deflect without sounding foolish, that cannot by manhandled by dinosaurs of a disappearing era. The speed of change is indisputable in the film which details the pre-Facebook and post-Facebook eras with satisfying details, although blanketed with the familiar dramas of Zuckerberg and company.

      The ending, where Zuckerberg ends up alone after a full day of depositions and argumentations in the conference room, toying with his Facebook page, adding Erica Albright as one of his friends in the networking site, and refreshing his internet browser every few seconds to see if his ex-girlfriend responds to his request, is a very potent portrait of creator succumbing to his creation. It details the very mechanism of human interaction that Facebook or any other high technology simulator of human behavior can never replicate, and that is the ability to feel and the free will to act on that feeling. A billionaire in his early twenties, the founder of the most popular website in the planet, a ruthless and conniving businessman, Zuckerberg, at that moment, is without what he wants and needs the most. It is the fact that it is the mechanical and a little bit humorous redundancy that his creation inevitably lured him into mindlessly committing that exposes his biggest failure amidst his famous successes that makes the scene, and the entire film, a worthwhile, if not enlightening journey into what kind of social creatures our human race is transforming into.

      President Barack Obama: It Gets Better



      It's amazing it took the White House and President Barack Obama so long to release a statement or video addressing this issue but here you have it. President Barack Obama says "It Gets Better".

      A transcript provided by the White House:
      Like all of you, I was shocked and saddened by the deaths of several young people who were bullied and taunted for being gay, and who ultimately took their own lives. As a parent of two daughters, it breaks my heart. It’s something that just shouldn’t happen in this country.

      We’ve got to dispel the myth that bullying is just a normal rite of passage – that it’s some inevitable part of growing up. It’s not. We have an obligation to ensure that our schools are safe forall of our kids. And to every young person out there you need to know that if you’re in trouble, there are caring adults who can help.

      I don’t know what it’s like to be picked on for being gay. But I do know what it’s like to grow up feeling that sometimes you don’t belong. It’s tough. And for a lot of kids, the sense of being alone or apart – I know can just wear on you. And when you’re teased or bullied, it can seem like somehow you brought it on yourself – for being different, or for not fitting in with everybody else.

      But what I want to say is this. You are not alone. You didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t do anything to deserve being bullied. And there is a whole world waiting for you, filled with possibilities. There are people out there who love you and care about you just the way you are. And so, if you ever feel like because of bullying, because of what people are saying, that you’re getting down on yourself, you’ve got to make sure to reach out to people you trust. Whether it’s your parents, teachers, folks that you know care about you just the way you are. You’ve got to reach out to them, don’t feel like you’re in this by yourself.

      The other thing you need to know is, things will get better. And more than that, with time you’re going to see that your differences are a source of pride and a source of strength. You’ll look back on the struggles you’ve faced with compassion and wisdom. And that’s not just going to serve you, but it will help you get involved and make this country a better place.

      It will mean that you’ll be more likely to help fight discrimination – not just against LGBT Americans, but discrimination in all its forms. It means you’ll be more likely to understand personally and deeply why it’s so important that as adults we set an example in our own lives and that we treat everybody with respect. That we are able to see the world through other people’s eyes and stand in their shoes – that we never lose sight of what binds us together.

      As a nation we’re founded on the belief that all of us are equal and each of us deserves the freedom to pursue our own version of happiness; to make the most of our talents; to speak our minds; to not fit in; most of all, to be true to ourselves. That’s the freedom that enriches all of us. That’s what America is all about. And every day, it gets better.

      SpongeBob - Mixed media























      Faz tempo que o Chris Borges (http://www.chrisborges.blogspot.com/) me desafiou a desenhar um Bob Esponja. Taí, Chris!
      Achei o esboço no meio da bagunça e finalizei.

      Andrew Sullivan: Big Think


      Andrew Sullivan is perhaps the best known and most influential political gay blogger out there.  His The Daily Dish blog, which is hosted at the online site for The Atlantic magazine, recently celebrated it's 10th year online (that's like 100 years in blog-life!).  In light of this milestone, the site Big Think has just posted a fascinating interview with Andrew on the blogging life, his politics, his appreciation for "South Park" and the fact that President Abraham Lincoln was probably gay. He is certainly someone whose intellect and passion I have long admired, even before his blogging days.

      In this segment, Andrew talks about marriage equality, the current political moment and Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" Project (be patient as it uploads):



      You can watch the full 42 minute interview here. Big Think has also split it up into segments.

      Related:

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      It gets better for queer Latinos - sometimes



      In the wake of a recent increase in reported suicides by young queer folk in the United States, gay journalist Dan Savage had a little idea back in September: What if people could upload short videos on YouTube and speak from personal experience telling younger folk who might be going through rough waters or be considering suicide that their lives mattered and to stick it through the hard times?

      Using his nationally syndicated sex-advice column and highly visited blog, Savage launched a YouTube channel he called The "It Gets Better" Project and invited people to post their videos there.

      The response has been overwhelming. In just one month, the site has posted more than 2,000 videos which have garnered more than 10 million views.  Just yesterday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton posted her own take.  Accordingly, there has been the need to create a stand alone site called, not surprisingly, "It Gets Better" which allows you to submit videos and also provides links to The Trevor Project for kids who might be feeling bullied and overwhelmed and might be thinking of taking their lives.



      That's the background.  What I wanted to highlight is that a friend of mine, Emmanuel Garcia, has been taking a look at the videos and been compiling a list of those submitted by Latino folk ("Latin@s: It Gets Better / Se Pone Mejor").

      I have posted a couple of the videos featured by Emmanuel. If you have leads on any other "It Gets Better" videos submitted for the project not listed on Emmanuel's blog, please go to the link above and leave a reply message on his post indicating which videos he might have missed.

      before sleep time......

      they do this...



      apply lotion to their hands and legs before they sleep! Usually they will sleep before me, i hardly go to bed together with them. There was a night i was really tired so i sleep early together with them, before bed, i will apply lotion on my legs and hands. My boys look at me and told me they want to put some lotion too. From there on, if got chance, they will tell me they want to put lotion before bed.


      apply slowly on the legs...



      finish...took a picture with their lotion - Anakku! LOL





      my two cheeky boys!

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