the most sought-after item

(a slacker's note on urban living)

nope, this isn't some deep, thought-provoking article to make your life better (fat chance, heheh).

i'm referring to those innocuous, commonplace objects that perversely remain out-of-sight just when you need them most. these are the trivial bits and pieces that are not necessarily vital to your happiness, but can — at certain moments — exasperatingly assume stratospheric importance.

for instance, consider the momentary irrational frenzy and annoyance that crop up whenever you urgently need to switch channels (or adjust volume, speed, etc.) and you can't find the ever-lovin' remote control. and just when moment has passed, you realize it's right there beside you all along!

another sample: you're all dressed up and ready to leave for an appointment, and then you realize with dawning horror that you can't remember where you left your keys (and the spares are out of reach). so you go through the motions of ransacking the contents of your pockets and/or bag, overturning various drawers, and generally wreaking havoc in your room — hoping for some miracle that they'll materialize right before your eyes.

or how about that hide-bound company ID just when you're about to enter the company premises and you're running late. or maybe that elusive wallet when you're about to pay your restaurant bill. sometimes it can be as trivial as a misplaced pen or a book, or something more essential like your mobile phone. my point is, whatever it is that eludes your reach at the moment can sometimes seem monumentally significant because it puts you off your stride — and consequently throws your world off-kilter.

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online hook-up via your celphone

after a series of exasperating false starts and glitches, i finally to managed to set things up and now i'm surfing online via my mobile phone (thanks to technical support from smart wireless center)). no, this service isn't new. (it's basically a dial-up function that uses your phone's modem to connect to smart's GSM network). a few of my officemates have been doing this for a few months now. and if i hadn't been so stubborn i could have set this up earlier.

part of the problem is that the mobile phone i'm using is a sony-ericsson, which unfortunately isn't as user-friendly as a nokia unit. even the smart technician who was assisting me was uttering a few mild oaths before he finally worked things out. heheh

another downer for this set-up is that it's nowhere hear the speed of dsl or wi-fi (*groan*); this becomes even more obvious when you try to access graphics-heavy and ads-filled sites. one time i took a bathroom break and when i came back the page was still loading up. hmm… i guess, it'll do, particularly this holy week when everything seems to slow down at a snail's pace.

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it looks like hayao miyazaki's next project will be a film called Gake no ue no Ponyo (Ponyo On A Cliff). This is according to a recent announcement from Studio Ghibli. The anime feature, which is scheduled to hit Japanese theaters in summer 2008, will revolve around the goldfish Ponyo (a princess) who yearns to become human and Sosuke, a 5-year-old boy.
 
It is said that Ponyo is modelled after the old images of Miyazaki's son (Goro Miyazaki), who directed Tales of Earthsea, an anime movie based on the 3rd book of the Earthsea saga written by the well-known fantasy writer Ursula K. Le Guin.

phelps is da man

and so, Michael Phelps picks up his 7th gold (out of 7 events) at the FINA World Swimming Championships in Melbourne, Australia, breaking Ian (the Thorpedo) Thorpe's standing record of 6 gold medals in the 2001 world championship in Fukuoka, Japan. Phelps' awesome achievement also matches that of Mark Spitz, who collected 7 gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics.

what makes his feats even more remarkable is that, 5 of the those events were accomplished in world record times. phelps blitzed other swimmers in five individual events (200m and 400m IM, 100m and 200m butterfly, 200m free) and in 2 team relays (4×100m and 4×200m free). he would have easily made history by picking up his 8th gold in 4×100m IM relay had the US team not been disqualified earlier due to a teammate's miscue.

it is also strangely ironic that ian thorpe himself is currently being besieged by questions sparked by a recent L'Equipe (France) article that tagged him as the swimmer whose May 2006 drug test showed adverse analytical results. This report naturally incurred the outrage of Australian fans and officials, who overwhelmingly threw their support for the popular swimming icon.

anime update

the last few days have given me enough time to browse through the latest addition to my anime archives.

as advertised, Elf Princess Rane turned out to be rollicking romp. it's a type of anime feature that requires repeated viewings from a serious anime fan to appreciate the true dimensions of its chaotic, demented plotline and its zany, self-absorbed characters.

despite its short length (2 OVA episodes), it's well stocked with standard anime parodies — watch out for its adventure-crazy, reality-challenged protagonist (Takarada Go), his innumerable sisters, and this guy with the huge, wavy hair (he's a riot!) — and verbal puns that will make your head spin. Beware, though, you need to be a really fast reader (or a sharp listener if you opt for the english version) in order to keep up with what everyone is is saying. most of the characters here talk funny, some are just plainly weird.

i'm still working my way through All-Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku-Nuku (TV series). It's a fairly well-loved oldie (late 1990s i think) and just happens to feature the iconic voice of my favorite seiyuu Megumi Hayashibara as the super girl android who will do anything  to protect her 'brother.'

sadly though, i realized too late that this was not the original OVA (which was released in the early 1990s) that i had wanted to see all this time. in this version, they toned down the original antagonist of the series, Mrs. Ryonosuke, and added another baddie. this time, the focus is mostly on Nuku-Nuku's travails as she learns — with hilarious results — how to co-exist with her human (high school) classmates.

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UPDATE: below is a short video (youtube) encapsulating some of the memorable roles that have made megumi hayashibara a household name in Japan as well as any anime-loving household the world over… (by the way, the voice you hear in this mish-mashed clip is hers — she usually sings the theme songs featured in some of the series she appears in as well as in other anime shows)