Have you seen Tokyo Tokyo's April Fool's Menu?

Tokyo Tokyo, SM MegaMall
April 14, 2008

Squid Ika Fry. Mmmmm...

"Sir, se-serve na lang po."

4 minutes later...


What da...?!!?

To be fair, the pic did say it would be served
in a red, plastic, rectangular compartment dish...

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Please type these letters.

Was signing up with del.icio.us and I had to prove I wasn't a robot by reading this:


And now I'm here doing what any Pinoy non-robot would do.

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Alternate Route from Manila to Baguio

Just posted the southbound version of this route here.

This northbound alternate route to Baguio takes you from the SCTEx, by-passes all the usual bottlenecks such as Tarlac and Urdaneta and zips you right off to Binalonan. We did not have the pleasure of taking this one from beginning to end because it came out in the papers when we were already in Baguio.

But it turned out we did take this route at some point when we followed the Directory Philippines Corporation (DPC Yellow Pages) signs starting from Concepcion all the way to Pura town (Km. 41 to Km. 62.7 in the diagram).

So if you're like us and you missed the SCTEx entry from the NLEX, just take the usual Concepcion route from the end of the NLEX, watch out for the "To LUISITA" sign, which is your cue to look out for the first DPC Yellow sign on your right (Km.41 here).

How to read the diagrams:

Note:
Non-SCTEx route starts here from the opposite direction,
so you turn right at this corner instead of left:

A few more notes:

1. This is the reverse of the route I posted last year starting from the first turn after exiting the SCTEx (Km. 41.0).

2. This route is also basically the same as the Directory Philippines Corp. (DPC Yellow Pages) route and you will in fact see the yellow DPC signs along the road and major turns. However, there are points in the route where you are advised NOT TO FOLLOW the DPC Yellow signs (Km. 62.7 and Km. 121.3).

3. The SCTEx is open from 5:30am to 5:30pm only, barring flights of fancy to close it at any other time. When we got there at 4pm last Sunday, the freaking thing was closed for some motoring event and we had to turn the hell back. SCTEx Motorist Assistance Nos. are (02)362-9997; (02)362-2246; (045)865-2030. Give them a call to announce your arrival and intention to use the facilities.

4. This route is NOT to be taken at night. There are neither lights nor road assistance.

Alternate Route from Baguio to Manila

We were in the mountains last weekend. That Friday, The Inquirer published a diagram of an alternate route to Baguio using the new Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEx). This route was surveyed by the Automotive Association of the Philippines and promised a speedier drive in near-zero traffic amid bucolic vistas. We'd be fools to refuse that deal, we thought, and so off we drove map in hand.

Except for a hiccup in that part of the diagram directing us NOT to follow the signs (Km. 28.9), we're happy to report that directions were accurate and promises were delivered -- none of the dreaded gridlocks since bottlenecks like Tarlac and Urdaneta were by-passed, and lots of well-paved tw0-lane roads with the occasional kuliglig (not the insect), carabaos, ducks and field mice.

How to read the diagrams:

A few notes:

1. This is in most part the same route I posted last year diverging only at the turn headed to the SCTEx entry (Km. 93.7).

2. This route is also basically the same as the Directory Philippines Corp. (DPC Yellow Pages) route and you will in fact see the yellow DPC signs along the road and major turns. The routes diverge at Km. 28.9 in Rosales town. They converge again along the way and if I recall correctly the yellow DPC signs reappear near the Victoria Town water tower at around Km. 78.4. At Km. 93.7 they diverge again heading to the SCTEx entry.

3. The SCTEx is open till 5:30pm only, barring flights of fancy to close it at any other time. When we got there at 4pm last Sunday, the freaking thing was closed for some motoring event and we had to turn the hell back. SCTEx Motorist Assistance Nos. are (02)362-9997; (02)362-2246; (045)865-2030. Give them a call to announce your arrival and intention to use the facilities.

4. This route is NOT to be taken at night. There are neither lights nor road assistance.


Northbound version of this route here.

Knowledge 101

Answer your kids' every other question with "I'll look it up online later," or "Because God made it that way," and you're bound to get a remark like this one from the Little Boy this morning, out of the blue (as usual): "Dad, you know who knows everything? The internet. . . and Jesus!"

Exemplary Damages

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I can't remember the last time I tuned in week after week to see a continuing TV series unfold. Maybe LA Law on the old RPN 9, and before that St. Elsewhere and Hill Street Blues back in the day when the old GMA 7 had the number on all the US series that mattered.

Back then, the series run seemed to play by the whim of the network honchos. We got whatever they decided to give us that particular week: a rerun, the episode following last week's, or an episode far ahead in the order of things. And in the absence of IMDB, we were none the wiser.

So week after week we tuned in mostly to find out what went down and what's in store for our favorite characters. But then we also tuned out, missed a few episodes, and jumped right back in again without losing appreciation of the episode at hand. We always got our fix because although references were made to episodes past, each new one most likely contained a fresh plot or subplot -- a case, a murder, an illness -- that was resolved by the end of the hour.

Damages focused on one single case the entire 13-week season and in that lay the compulsion to tune in and compunction in tuning out. That is why we made time to watch week after week which, in the face of (d'oh!) adult priorities, is quite an investment. That is why we vowed not to let this one go the way of 24 and Lost where our questionable devotion made us lose track and fall off the wagon, and turned us into hillbillies among our friends ("What? Don't you have TV?"). That is why the series finale airing tomorrow night better. Not. Suck. There'd better be a pay-off or there'd be hell to pay.

U2 in Manila in 3D

Whatta you know, wishes do come true apparently. U2, tho not quite in flesh-and-blood form but in ones and zeros, finally invade Manila.

U23D starts screening tomorrow April Fool's at the IMAX Theater in Mall of Asia and The D-Cinema in SM North EDSA. Tickets are reportedly at P500 a pop. Steep as movies go but it's a freaking bargain considering it's in IMAX, in 3D, in digital sound and video. Plus it's been getting great reviews. And it's freaking U2. Nuff said.

I actually saw these guys in Sydney in November 2006. Cost a bit more than 500 bucks. It was worth every cent; an experience of a lifetime, something to tell the kids' grandkids about. I started on the blog entry as soon as I got back but things got so hairy at home and the office all I could manage was the playlist and I didn't even get to post that. So here they are, songs of that night that etch themselves even deeper in memory everytime I remember:

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
New Year's Day
Beautiful Day
Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Angel of Harlem
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Love and Peace
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride in the Name of Love
Where The Streets Have No Name
One

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You

The Saints Are Coming
Party Girl
Kite


Took these with a camera phone, sorry for the quality:

From our seats, the stage at an angle:

It looked pretty tame until the lights went out and that hundred-foot steel mesh curtain in middle
became the Mother of All Video Screens:

See those ants at the bottom of the screen?
The Irish lads themselves.


Front act was Kanye West (!) and the crowd itself looked pretty tame and sparse during warm up:
(Click on the pic, it's a cool pan.)

But by the first song... it was a swollen sea of U2manity
all on their feet.

Can't wait to go at it again.
This time, sitting down, tenth row center
with Bono thirty feet away and eighty feet tall.

Farewell, Tinkerbell.

Two words from the Little Girl that made me laugh as I was leaving for work today: "Goodbye, Alligator!"

It's out there.

A few months or so ago I was thinking about how old TV series are enjoying a new (and maybe better) life in rerun land these days and how rerun land could use a dose of the finer ones like The X-Files. Just a few days after that SkyCable revamped its line-up and two (two!) of its new channels were carrying The X-Files -- with at least one of them airing it three times a day everyday.

Then a few days ago, I was thinking about that big X-Files movie they made and how it made us all scratch our heads and how a new X-Files movie would fare in this day and age. Well just this morning, the wires announced that Mulder and Scully will own the big screen again on July 25, just 119 days from now.

Yep, aliens are reading my mind and making things happen. Why don't you read this, lollipopheads: Lotto...P207,000,000.00...my pockets.



Speaking of ETs, what is arguably the best X-Files episode ever (certainly one of the best ep of any TV show ever), "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" will air on AXNBeyond (Sky Ch.35 ) at 6am, 12pm and 11pm of April 4, 2008 just 7 days from now.

I remember seeing this once on its original air date on Channel 9 in the 90s and I remember being blown away. I've never seen it since, so screw work next Friday. And if the aliens do what they're supposed to and make my lotto dream happen tonight, screwing work starts tomorrow.

"Honest mistake," he says.

What he should have said was (all together now): "I...am...sorry."

clipped from www.abs-cbnnews.com Metro (as of 3:10 PM) March 24, 2008 No kid-glove treatment for Estrada Airport police on Monday said they will pursue a criminal case against actor John Estrada for carrying live bullets inside the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. Chief Superintendent Atilano Morada, head of the Aviation Security Group, said the ASG will pursue the complaint against Estrada if the Pasay Prosecutor’s Office finds probable cause to elevate the case to a trial court. “Anyone who will be caught with live bullets—lawmakers, actors, ordinary passengers—should go through trial,” Morada told ABS-CBN’s morning show “Umagang Kay Ganda.” He said ASG members are required to attend the hearing if the prosecutor handling the actor’s case calls them to the preliminary investigation. Estrada said the bag was borrowed and that he did not know its contents before boarding the flight. "It was an honest mistake," he told reporters.

Update: He was released without bail after inquest since the prosecutor still had to subject the bullets to laboratory tests (they might be chocolate bulltets, see) before formal charges are filed. I think it'll be a while before we get any news on this thing again. Subject in Malaysia now as previously planned with his Brazilian girlfriend whose looks by the way can only be described as bullet-stopping.