~

On an online discussion about Filipina beauty, a question was raised: “Why does it seem like there are more beautiful Filipinas in the rich and wealthy than there are in the poor?”

Ofcourse, the most common answer is because it is the rich and famous who can afford beauty products. But one analyst did some math and suggested that the question isn’t necessarily true. The Philippines, being a third world nation has more poor in its population. So it doesn’t matter how many pretty women there are in the rich and famous category, the total number of pretty gals belonging to the poor, even though the percentage of them are relatively few, will still be significantly more than the total number of rich and beautiful women. It will make sense, just try and figure that out.

Oh, but the beautiful poor Filipina aren’t exactly ‘poor’ but they will more properly fall into the realm of well-to-do families or the ‘commoners’ of modern society. What’s more is the fact that if one visits the countryside provinces or Cebu and Davao, the women there are simple, but nonetheless beautiful.

I also added that these provinciana beauties are the ones who bag the city mayors, congressmen, governors, business tycoons, the Japanese perverts, and dirty old Caucasians. Hence, the beautiful poor will eventually breed in with the illustrados and the politicians who basically own the country.

--

~

I’m making a list of New Year Resolutions that I’ve already given up on. So far, here’s one: I’ve given up on “To eat more healthy foods.” I’m realizing that although I can make myself eat more servings on a single meal, the food won’t necessarily be ‘healthy’.

The other day, a co-worker was doing her daughter’s homework and she asked “What are the basic food groups again?” To which I replied with: “There are four basic food groups: canned, frozen, instant and fast.”

--

~

I’ve always seen Golden Globe as an awards night for TV shows and the Oscars for feature films. Nevertheless, I’m quite happy with the winners on the motion picture categories. Meryl Streep won Best Actress (Comedy) for The Devil Wears Prada which for me is the best movie I’ve seen for 2006 followed by The Prestige, Cars and Happy Feet. Cars won Best Animated Feature Film. There were a few of movies we don’t care much for like The Queen, Dreamgirls (Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy; which hasn’t reached the Phils yet) and Babel (which won Best Motion Picture – Drama). American Idol’s Jennifer Hudson got an instant win for Best Supporting Actress – Musical or Comedy. Not bad for a relative stranger on the big screen.

As said, I look with more anticipation on the awards for TV shows during the Golden Globes. I had a bit of high hopes for new comer Heroes but it may have been too early for the mutants to bag an award. Grey’s Anatomy finally won, beating out Lost and 24! Hugh Laurie won Best Actor for TV – again, making a good run for Kiefer Sutherland’s money. I’ll vote for Hugh Laurie anytime over Jack Bauer. Hugh can be annoying, sadistic, eccentric, funny, serious, sarcastic and brilliant all in just one episode while Kiefer Sutherland’s character is just… Jack Bauer.

Below is the Grey's Anatomy version for The Fray's How to Save a Life.


Ugly Betty is apparently hitting it big in the US. No comment.

For a complete list of nominees and winners: http://www.hfpa.org/nominations/index.html

--

~

The X-men/Spiderman/Superman formula has been tried and tested. Normal looking people suddenly discovering they have superhuman abilities are pulled into the destiny of saving the world. It’s all been done before. But when you think you couldn’t reinvent the wheel anymore, somebody else already done it. This is what prompted me to look into Heroes – the latest hit TV series produced by NBC. Reading the plot summary, it doesn’t differ from any superhero epic – individuals discovering they have powers and they take on the duty of preventing armaggeddon. But then it’s a wonder why is Heroes making it big in Japan and now in the US. Japan because Heroes is a Japanese manga/anime story that’s been remade for international audiences.


After completing the first 11 episodes of season 1 (mid-season), I’ll have to say that there hasn’t been anything like Heroes before. Viewers can see a cross between X-men, Terminator and The 4400 all rolled into one but somehow, in a way I can’t put my finger on, Heroes is distinctly different. The shots on every scene are big-screen worthy, the cast and characters are all memorable and the storyline is extremely well thought and weaves seamlessly through the intricate details of each ‘hero’. HBO’s Carnivale could have been as good as Heroes because of plot and character development if only HBO sped up the pace. At the rate Carnivale went with only 6 episodes on the first season, it was already clear that the writers and producers no longer knew how to proceed with Carnivale’s story.

Heroes doesn’t move at a breakneck pace like ‘24’. It’s more like Lost and Prison Break. Lost also had a brilliant way of developing characters but with a drawback – they can only do so much with flashbacks which is most of the time boring. In Heroes, most of the characters are seemingly lost individuals who are just discovering themselves and what they want and thus letting the viewers in on their personalities real time.

For sure, I’m hooked on this one until the producers loose their insipirations and mess up the story. Heroes’ second half of season 1 continues January 22. They already have 2 nominations for best series/drama challenging CSI and Lost. Looks like NBC finally has something to go against the champions because their recent titles Las Vegas and Kidnapped just isn’t as captivating. I don’t even know why people (including me) are still watching Law & Order.

--

~

Or in this case, gifts. Here’s another Morning Rush question: What’s the best gift you received this Christmas season?

I actually got a good quantity of presents this year; however I feel that the best ones are the gifts I bought for myself. Oh yeah. So here they are.


Buddha Bar: Lounge Essentials 2CD Album + Hed Kandi: World Series 3CD Album
I just have this addiction to lounge / chilled / trance music so I really saved up for the titles above. These things cost about 5 times more than the usual music CDs so I’m glad I got them on sale.

Next on the list is actually a price I won on our company party. At stake were a lot of goodies including mp3 players and the likes. I always knew my luck on raffles sucked so I declared that I’m simply rooting to get the picture frame. Because for some weird reason, I’m surprisingly in need of one despite of the fact that people have this annoying subconscious tendency to give frames and clocks for gifts – the two things that nobody really wants to receive. Sure enough, I got #13 – the number for the picture frame! So I’m very happy with that one.

I got a fashion pink Bicycle playing cards deck as my exchange gift present. I'm trying to complete all the USPC printed Bicycle brand playing card designs.

To cap off the list is the Starbucks Planner. You can’t buy these as you will have to accomplish a required number of product purchases in order to get one. This has been more of a sacrifice just to get the planner specially when half of the mandatory products you have to buy tasted like salabat or cough syrup. But the planner was beautiful and is really worth it! It came with a pen of course and well, the whole packaging was at least very appealing.

--