Kids use textspeak in their skulpapers. A bit 2 much, i tink. Ya, esp. if u found dem n 4mal papers.

I noticed this when I had that journalism for kids workshop a month back. I had the kids make newspaper galleys, and when they presented their drafts to me, it read very much like an online conversation found via messenger or IRC. I mean, imagine the headline: "SNWYT FOUND DED!*" I had to tell them newspapers don't read like that. Some of the teachers told me it was becoming a regular occurence, and they put smileys at the end of quizzes. Neat. In a couple of years, when these kids go to college -- if they ever decide to go -- they would be making hell for English teachers. Feh.

I encouraged them to deconstruct fairy tales. But they also have a penchant for tabloid news, so there you go.

Article found via bottledbliss

Barely have time to breathe. I was up a couple of hours ago trying to finish something before I run out again to another meeting. I missed my movies. Three days in a row already, I have friends texting me an invite to go watch with them at the Shang, but always had to beg off because I had to rush home and do something. I miss hanging around doing nothing until early afternoon. Bah.

How to trace your genealogy in six crazy steps, annotated:

To spruce up your family tree, add gold stars next to the names of all the cousins you've nailed. [..If you can stand them. It's more like hammered through the door due to sheer annoyance. There's a reason why in breeding is generally repulsive. ]

If you trace your family back six generations, you should arrive at the great-great-great-great grandfather of Kevin Bacon. [ German Moreno can also be quite useful. ]

Keep in mind that entire branches of your family tree can be taken out with a simple Magic Marker. [ Ah yes. Hand me that marker. ]

Go to your oldest living relative and ask him or her about your lineage. Work your way down to the second, third, and fourth oldest until you get to someone who makes some sense. [ I would like to, but it's difficult because there's now suddenly so few of them. ]

Hey, you know who could help you, is the town historical society. They could help you find the location of the original veterans' cemetery before the county was incorporated. You should go there right now. I'll stay here and tell you how the Raiders game turned out. [ Nope, they're of no absolute help. Even if my grandmother's name is on the library and in the streets, the information still runs a bit short. ]

Note to women: In this society, it is unimportant to know anything about your lineage on your mother's side. Just skip it altogether. [This is weird, because I can trace my genealogy easier through my mother's side. I'm matronimic, what can I say. ]

One of the things I would really like to do is to fill in all the branches in my family tree. My brothers and I are generally closer to my mom's side of the family, since that's where we were raised and all. We only see relatives from our father's side occasionally. So if somebody asks me about my family, it will inevitably be my mother's. I specially loved my Memeng --my grandmother -- and how her great great grandfather traded being in the family business so he could start a ferry thing that crosses the Pasig River. He became a banquero not a banker. I could only get hazy details, and heard the same stories again and again. It was painful because I knew there were lots of stories to tell, but she was old and could only repeat those etched vividly in her mind.

My mother had been nagging me to dig up papers from the city hall and the registry, but I've been too tamad to do that. So until I actually get up from my arse and do it, kantogirl will remain rootless. As opposed to ruthlessness, I suppose it's not a bad bad thing.

CleanFlicks.com offers "sanitized" versions of films deemed to be too violent, immoral or offensive to the public. So if you order Reservoir Dogs from their catalogue, all you'd ever see are the opening and closing credits. Everything else is unfit for viewing. And we thought that the MTRCB is prudish. Natch.

My friend A+ and I have been discussing the many merits of actor/writer/director* Mathieu Kassovitz this past week. I first saw him at the French Film festival last June. He wasn't there, personally. But we watched "Metisse" and it was fun and hilarious, and we just had to know who the sort of geeky and scrawny looking guy with the glasses was. When we learned that he not just starred, but also wrote and directed the film...Well, that's just about it. He's not drop dead gorgeous or model boy pretty, but there's just something about him:

Kassovitz, whose legs do not go up to there and whose face is more about nose than cheekbones, harbored no illusions about becoming a supermodel. His big break came unsought and unexpected in spring 2001. He was on the jury at Cannes, unreachable, when the messages started coming: ''Lancome wants to speak with you.''

A+ also said that this other girl B said that there was a Mathieu Kassovitz Lancome standee at the Shang before, but since nobody has ever seen it but her, we consider it an urban legend. Anyhow, I checked out his filmography and turns out he was also in "The Fifth Element." Buti na lang I have that on video. I'm going to check it out again later. So if you ask me "Would you buy after shave from this man?" Well, yes. Most definitely, even if I don't need it. :)

[ Our runner up cute guy of the week was Jeremy Irons in "And Now..Ladies and Gentlemen. Nice toussled hair. Plus he looks so athletic for a guy his age. ]

*I just so like people with multiple slashes. Right, Mark? Hehehe.

This website tells me that I was a banker, usurer, moneylender or judge in modern Spain around the year 1350. I supposedly knew how to use my opportunities, and I remained cold-blooded and calm in any situation. The lesson that my last past life brought to my present incarnation: learn determination and persistency.

Figures. I must have used up all my talents in finance, my calmness, and now tend to wallow in panic. Well sometimes. If I gain it back, do I get to be Shylock and will somebody ask me to return a pound of their flesh?

Found via ate Cyn's site. Hehehe.

Check out the 5th edition of the Cine Europa over at the Shangri-La Plaza Mall. It runs from 20-26 September, free admission as always. Already watched "Geboren in Absurdistan" from Austria. It's about two families whose children gets switched at birth. Very soap opera material. But handled very well, except for the weird orchestra at the end. Also saw France's "And now.. Ladies and Gentlemen." (Lousy title for a movie, but hey, Jeremy Irons is in it. And he's very hot, for a middle-aged guy. The movie kind of felt like Vanilla Sky, only without the tech support. Anyhow. Check it out, boys and girls. You can find the schedule here.

Had a crazy week that saw me almost not sleeping and it's not because of work. I've been bumming around Monday thru Thursday, staying at home, doing stuff. Only went out for movies twice. But for some reason, I really couldn't sleep until daybreak or morning sunshine kicks in through my windows. Argh. So when Friday rolled around, I barely had the energy to stay upright through my meeting. Considered taking sleeping pills then decided against it. Tried my darndest best to fall asleep without aid of any chemicals. Succeeded a bit.

Then here I am again. Got home a little after midnight. I turn on my phone which went dead on me sometime in the evening and get ten thousand messages saying that my other headwriter wants me to translate stuff I had submitted earlier and submit it by Sunday morning in time for a meeting during the afternoon. There goes my weekend. And I really have to go to sleep now. Bah.

Watched Y Tu Mama Tambien at the UP Film Center. Huge crowd, fabulous movie, and an even more nifty website. Soundtrack also very nice. Go. If I weren't too damn tired, would say something about it now.

Update: Although they said that it was going to be a "one-time only premiere," there's going to be a couple more screenings of the film on Thursday, 26 September. Still at the UP Film Center, screening times at 4 and 7 pm. The tickets cost Php100. A bit costly, yes. But trust me, it's a very fun movie. Try to catch it if you can.

A Sucker's Guide to Teen Movies claims that they have the key to teen city. Which in this case happens to be Springfield, Illinois --where most of John Hughes' films are set.

The Guide defines the teen movie ideology as something that relies more on the gag and wackiness per minute. The teen movie is comedy, not tragedy. Because according to them "teen-seriosi just doesn't work."

I came across this site while searching for a particularly obscure 80s teen movie nobody has even heard of except our headwriter. Said movie was an idiotically dumb prototype "I know what you did last summer" and/or any of the teen slasher movies crossed with Nightmare on Elm Street. So you can pretty much guess how
degenerate it is.

So if you're looking for er, in depth analysis on the merits and high points of such irresistible classics such as "BMX Bandits" or "Dazed and Confused," this is where you find them. Consider this take on the rites of passage in American teendom and its effect on world starvation:

In the "Dummies in mouths" initiation ceremony previously mentioned, girls have eggs and flour poured on them; it's like the sawdust/feathers and tar method, where you make someone look like a chicken. It's a medieval humiliation, for goodness sake!!
This kind of pathetic pagan ritualism is straight out of the 1650's, not the 1970's. And, it demonstrates that the Americans have too much food. Sorry, everyone over there, but you have too much food!! Don't waste it on initiation ceremonies. And for goodness sake, don't steal our pagan rituals that are 400 years old. We don't dance round the maypole anymore, so have some dignity: Don't go around feathering and tarring young teenage girls!! Unless you like that sort of thing, of course... And Jail.

The makers of the site are Australian, and they also pose interesting queries to our existence. Like "Why is everyone a bimbo?" and "Is this irony?" It makes me want to ask them: "Why do you even bother?" But I guess I shouldn't complain, because I was laughing so hard all the while I was browsing through the site.