Miscellany

I think the popularity of DVD and VCD piracy has really driven video prices down. Imagine, when DVDs came out in the Philippines, they cost about P1,000 and VCDs cost about as much as a music CD (P450-ish). Now, although there are still some DVDs that cost that much, a lot of them now cost from P395-595. On the other hand, a lot of VCDs now cost P150-275. What's more is that there are always video sales wherein these prices drop even further. Last week, for instance, there was another sale in Tower Records. I took a look at the items on sale and I found two very old Jackie Chan movies - 'Drunken Master' and 'Snake in the Eagle's shadow.' When I was a kid, I used to watch a lot of Kung Fu movies on betamax with my brothers and cousins, and these movies were two of our favorites. So when I saw them on sale, I decided to purchase them, and I watched them both over the weekend. Pretty cool! Brought back a truckload of childhood memories hehehe.

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My nephews started school in Community of Learners this week. Actually their first day was supposed to be last Wednesday but both of them got really sick so they had to miss the first few days of school. My grandparents were also able to find a driver so that someone can take the kids to and from school (which is actually quite a distance from home). My older nephew CJ is having 'i-don't-like-school' problems, which might be coming from what we think is some trauma developed in his previous pre-school. My mom actually went to Community of Learners yesterday morning since CJ was having problems, and she says that the way they handle special children and their teaching methods are very good indeed. According to my mom, CJ is starting to warm to the idea of school again (he said 'I like school') so maybe it will just take a little more time before he gets in a groove. On the other hand, Ciera, my younger nephew, seems to be enjoying himself there quite a bit. Hopefully, Community of Learners can help them a huge lot in their development.

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My band, StillOz is going to having another gig tomorrow, this time in Racks in El Pueblo. It'll be our first time to play there, and is always the case when we play in a new venue, I will surely get stage fright again. I just hope we can do well in this gig as it could become another semi-regular venue for us to play in.

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Bo Bice's single, 'Inside your heaven' (which is the idol song) was released last Tuesday in the US (June 21). The single is now ranked #2 in both the Barnes and Noble bestseller list and Amazon.com (behind Coldplay's new hit album, X&Y - I like their new song btw). Carrie's single, which was released a week earlier, is doing fairly well too, although not as well as Bo's. It really seems to me that AI wanted two idols, as you can see by the fact that both the winner and the runner-up released the Idol song 'Inside your heaven', which has never happened before.