Ryan Tani

Love is all there is –

Love in life is happiness;

Life in love is bliss.

After several hours of fighting and forgiving, Tin and I have finally come up with a mock-up we both like.

It still needs a lot of work (Tin’s quick brown fox story is cute, but hardly professional), but with this I’m sure the design and code will be done by the time my domain is transferred.

What do you think? I think it’s mature, yet still bright and flashy — just the way I like it. Thanks Tin!

While waiting, I tried to design my site’s new look in analogue. Here’s what I got on the second try, and I’m pretty happy with it (please let me know if you’re not). So I asked Tin to design the digital version, and she agreed, despite all the work she still has to do. I wasn’t surprised though — I’ve always known she was an angel, but right now she’s in heaven.

Last night, I decided to leave Blogger and move to Wordpress. I’ll be doing some freelance work, so I wanted to have a more professional website. But after some research I discovered that Blogger just won’t do. So I registered with Bluehost (hosting recommended by Wordpress) and began the domain transfer from Yahoo.

It’ll be hard to say goodbye, especially after all the tweaking I’ve done (and with little help from Tin!). And it’ll be hard to say hello to Wordpress. In exchange for the more powerful features, I’d have to pay with more time (to play around with all the plugins and themes) and money (for hosting).

How serious I’ve become about all this is surprising — I used to think blogging was just for emo kids. And then I realized that I was an emo kid, so I tried it out, at first just blogging photos from my cellphone.

Then at work I got into Knowledge Management and Enterprise 2.0. So I read more about blogging, at the same time trying to blog more often. My posts were mostly trivial — pictures with family, videos of our dogs, reviews of movies. Eventually it became a hobby, though for a personal blog things never got too personal.

So when I finish the switch, I’ll try to make things a little more intimate, while keeping it professional. I’m not sure how that’s going to work, but at least I’ll have some time to think — according to Yahoo tech support (you can call them toll-free from Yahoo Messenger), the domain transfer could take as long as a week.

Till then, keep reading, and enjoy the last few days of my beautifully designed Blogger blog.

I love superheroes. As a kid, I collected trading cards, comic books, and action figures. And even now, when a new superhero movie or TV show comes out, I would watch it or downlo–buy it on DVD in a heartbeat.

But I hate Heroes. I’m not the best person to judge the show, having seen only the first episode. But that single episode’s suckiness was bad enough for three seasons. So until season three arrives and I finally give Heroes a chance, I’m watching three other shows to satisfy my superhero appetite.

1) Pushing Daisies — A piemaker discovers that his touch can bring dead people back to life. Another touch and they stay dead forever. Together with his partner, the piemaker would solve a crime and collect the reward by (1) touching the victim, (2) asking Who killed you?, and (3) touching the victim again.

The Bad. The narrator, whose voice reminds me of David Attenborough, adds an old and poetic effect to the story. But after a few episodes, I just found it old.

The Good. They did interesting things with the premise, and I’m sure there’s still more they could do. And although I didn’t find the heroine pretty, her romance with the hero is sweet and challenging — watch the first two episodes to find out why.

2) Reaper – An average guy turns 21 and finds out that his parents sold his soul to the devil. Now he must serve the rest of his life as the devil’s bounty hunter, catching escaped demons and sending them back to hell ala Ghost Rider. Luckily, his friends think this is cool and are there to help.

The Bad. The demons they face are deadly, so I don’t believe that anyone would risk their lives just because they think it’s cool. And I don’t believe that a group of people that stupid could survive and even defeat the demons every single time.

The Good. Despite the problems with believability, the special effects are good, the show is funny, and it doesn’t take itself too seriously. And in the later episodes, a love triangle and a mystery make the plot pretty interesting.

3) Chuck — A computer nerd opens an email that downloads an entire database of top secret stuff into his brain, turning him into the government’s most valuable asset. With the help of two top government agents and his computer of a brain, Chuck protects his country from terrorists and other high-profile criminals.

The Bad. I hate it when Chuck remembers top secret stuff and says them out loud then gets into trouble for it. Especially when it happens every other episode.

The Good. With action good enough for a movie, chemistry good enough for a sitcom, and romance good enough for a drama, Chuck is my favorite out of the three shows. It doesn’t hurt to have the best looking cast, too.

Last night, I reviewed The Orphanage, wherein a boy plays with imaginary friends. Tonight, I’m reviewing a movie wherein the hero falls in love with an imaginary woman.

In Lars and the Real Girl, Lars (Ryan Gosling) has unresolved issues from his past that are keeping him from relating to others normally — especially to women. So he orders a love doll online, names her Bianca, and brings her everywhere he goes — to his brother’s house, to parties, and even to church.

What happens next is nothing short of inspiring, and even with a sex toy involved, Lars and the Real Girl is a touching story for the whole family. (7/10)

El Orfanato (The Orphanage), a film produced by Guillermo del Torro, is the scariest movie I’ve seen since Sixth Sense. It’s about a mother who tries to cope with his sick son. As if having HIV weren’t enough, the boy also plays with imaginary friends.

With its creepy yet magical mood, it reminded me of a film directed by del Torro, Pan’s Labyrinth. The dark fantasy movie has already received international acclaim, and The Orphanage will probably follow suit — I heard from a friend (a Just G endorser) that there’ll be a Hollywood version late this year. Just like [REC], another brilliant horror movie I recently reviewed. I just hope these horrors don’t get butchered.

Puns aside, The Orphanage is worth watching. Just be sure to watch it with a non-imaginary friend. (8/10)

I had high expectations for There Will Be Blood. The first time I saw it on IMDB it scored an 8.9, making it the highest rated movie of the decade. Daniel Day-Lewis, who plays the protagonist of the same first name, won an Oscar for Best Actor.

The movie was also nominated for both Best Picture and Best Screenplay. And even though it didn’t win, the nominations were enough to get my attention — as an aspiring screenwriter, I believe the story is what’s most important.

The movie began with twenty minutes of no dialogue. And unless you’re really into mining, there was no action either. And without dialogue and action, is it still a movie?

Halfway into the movie I still had no idea what the movie’s about and why it’s supposed to be good. And halfway is a long time for a 2.5 hour movie. Nevertheless, I finished the movie. And checked my email. And clipped my fingernails and toenails.

I look for two things in a movie — entertainment and education. I didn’t enjoy a single moment of the movie. But I did learn something — sometimes, a movie can win awards and high-ratings and still suck balls. The title should have been There Will Be Boredom. Or to be more precise, There Will Be Two-and-a-Half Hours of Boredom.

Although I still like Golimar more, I found this Crazy Indian video hilarious, and you probably did, too. If you’re like me, you’re thinking, Wow, that Buffalax sure is creative. But if you’re Indian or are just sensitive to insensitive stuff like this, you were probably offended.

But love it or hate it, we do this all the time. Instead of listening to what people are telling us, we use our own subtitles in place of what we actually hear. And most of the time, our interpretations are as far-fetched as the ones Buffalax used (”I’d love to see you pee on us tonight”).

Only Buffalax probably doesn’t speak the language(s) in the videos he Buffalaxes. On the other hand, we subtitle people we understand perfectly well (at least linguistically).

Sometimes, this can be good. Mothers train their daughters to use subtitles wisely to defend themselves from guys who will say sweet nothings to score. In some cases, even incorrect subtitles are probably better than the nothings.

But sometimes, when someone says “sorry” or “I love you” or “you’re beautiful,” they mean just that and nothing more. Sadly, some of us don’t believe, interpret with malice, or just totally Buffalax it (”I’d love to see you pee on us tonight”).

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
- George Bernard Shaw

It takes experience to know whether to read something into what somebody says or does. But if you do it too much, you might as well just talk to yourself.

So the next time you talk to someone, try to catch yourself Buffalaxing. Remember the Crazy Indian video, laugh, and then do something you probably haven’t done in a long time — just listen.