Who I am according to Tarot

Saw this entry on Xtiane's blog about Tarot card readings... Since I'm in school on lovely a Saturday morning and my damn groupmates are already 1 hour late for our meeting I am totally bored. With nothing else to do, I took the blasted test. According to the Tarot gods, I am:



I am The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man reminds us that the best approach to a problem is not always the most obvious. When we most want to force our will on someone, that is when we should release. When we most want to have our own way, that is when we should sacrifice. When we most want to act, that is when we should wait. The irony is that by making these contradictory moves, we find what we are looking for.

What do I say? I think having a Tarot card by the name of "The Hanged Man" is pretty damn cool!! The only problem is the definition pretty much sux!! In no way am I what this Tarot card portrays me to be. So... im again gonna take control of my destiny dammit!! This is my Hanged Man Tarot card:


Mike the Hanged Man

Like the Gods of Norse Mythology, I am great! I am marvelous and spectacular! Yet at the same time, destiny is heavy upon my shoulders... Ragnarok nears and it is inevitable. Godly I may be, but there is nothing that can prevent its coming. There will come a time when I will finally graduate from college and I will have to start working. The days of being a lazy bummeth will thus, come to a conclusion. Yes... Ragnarok is coming. I am screwed.

Now there's a card that defines me!! Ooohh Yeah!!

My Top 10 Cover Songs of All Time

I’ve been hearing a lot of cover songs on the radio as of late (nakikita ko rin ung mga videos nila, kadalasan olats). A lot of Filipino acts do cover songs (MYMP, Paolo Santos etc.), some even come up with whole albums of them (Nina and Regine Velascuez).

Some people hate cover songs, but I don’t. Don’t get me wrong though, siyempre naasar din ako pag me nambababoy ng mga astig na kanta (e.g. Britney Spears and her rendition of I love Rock ‘n Roll comes to mind). But there are instances when artists take songs and make them their own, sometimes even making them, in my opinion better. Sometimes an artist can take a song and introduce it to a whole new generation.

So I came up with this list of my favorite cover songs of all time. They are ranked from 10 to 1 (one being the best, duh!). Some people may disagree with my list, that’s perfectly fine, it’s my list dammit!

10. I DON’T WANNA BE YOUR FRIEND by Nina
-This song was big a few months back. Nina did her Mariah Carrey thing and took this new wave song by Cindy Lauper and added some diva-ish flavor.

9. BABY CAN I HOLD YOU TONIGHT by Boyzone
- I’m not really a fan of boybands, but I think Ronan “Mr. I’m-singing-through-my-nose” Keating and co. (bading ung isa sa kanila dib a?) did a great job rendering this Tracy Chapman original (Sobra stupid lang nga ng video).

8. WAITING IN VAIN by MYMP
- Doobie music! Accoustic style! Bob Marley should be saluting MYMP with his weed pipe for the great job they did on his song (ganda ng boses ng girl ng MYMP, simple lang pero swabe).

7. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU by Utada Hikaru
-I saw this J-Pop princess’ version of my favorite U2 song in a MTV Unplugged show. I like her voice and she’s pretty cute too. Her song Automatic made it to the Philippines around 2000. For those of you who are wondering, Utada Hikaru is not the chick who hangs out with Dice & K9.

6. SMOOTH CRIMINAL by Alien Ant Farm
- I don’t know if they were paying homage or mocking the King of Pop with this cover song, but Alien Ant Farm’s smooth criminal rocks (eto nga lng cool nilang kanta eh)! They took one of Wacko Jacko’s greatest songs (we sometimes forget that this wierdo made a lot of great tunes), and added some punk flavor. Plus, the video is hilarious!

4. TAINTED LOVE by Marilyn Manson
- When I heard Marilyn Manson’s version of this Cure classic, a got a whole new meaning to the term “Tainted Love”. He (or she) makes it sound so… evil (but in a good way). Manson’s version of this song reminds me of the Vampire Lestat (The rock star vampire in Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles”).

3. TORN by Natalie Imbruglia
- Yep, this song is a cover. It was first sang by Edna Swap (cno un!?) from an album called Wacko Magneto (Ano un!?). That’s the reason this song is on my list! Apparently Natalie Imbruglia took a song that nobody cared about and made it such a monster hit!! Edna Swap probably wants to rip her head off and piss on her skull…

2. THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD by Nirvana
- Kurt Cobain and company did an unplugged version of this David Bowie original a few months before he blew his freakin’ brains out. He probably thought of the song as sort of a pre-death eulogy or something. It’s my favorite Nirvana song, and God knows how I loved Nirvana growing up! PUNKS NOT DEAD Woohoo!!

1. KNOCKIN’ ON HEAVEN’S DOOR by Guns and Roses
- Guns and Roses were the last of a dead breed of Rockstars. They were the last of a breed of musicians who depicted themselves as “larger than life”. They were the last of the Rockstars who drew themselves up to be gods among men. Yes, Axel Rose and Slash were the gods of my youth, and Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door was my anthem. I loved this song even before I knew Bob Dylan was behind it. In my mind, Guns and Roses took a great song by a great musician and made it their own. In my opinion, that is truly something great.

"Tooning" Natalie Portman

I’m supposed to be having my immersion starting today, but if you read my previous post, you know it’s not happening right? Right…

Since I had nothing else better to do today (wasn’t in the mood for much anyways, and the TV shows pretty much sucked), I decided to play around with Adobe photoshop. I’ve been seeing a lot of “cartoonized” pictures on magazine ads and on the internet recently so I’ve been experimenting making a few. My last attempt was totally hideous to say the least. I made Sophia Bush (the cute girl who plays Brooke in One Tree Hill) look like Michael Jackson for crying out loud. This time, I decided to make one using a photo of myself (my grad pic to be precise, don’t ask me why I have one when I haven’t even graduated yet), but I apparently deleted the copy from the PC. So, I decided to use a celebrity photo instead. I saw a cute pic of Natalie Portman in Kabo’s blog and decided to use it instead. Here’s the photo:



Now here’s the photo after I “cartoonized” it:



I think it’s pretty decent, though a lot more improvements can be made, especially the eyes and hair. What do you guys think?

Mike’s Post of Rage

Yesterday, something very bad happened to me. I wasn’t able to go to the immersion orientation last Monday because my group leader didn’t tell me there was an orientation. So yesterday I went to OSCI to attend another one. There wasn’t another one. The girl behind the OSCI desk was very uncooperative. Bottom line is I’m going to miss the immersion this Friday and there is only a slim chance I get to go to another immersion site at another date. The immersion is a requirement of my TH141 class. These two people (my group leader and the girl behind the OSCI desk) made me mad. So, I am now going to take a page of Charles’ book by letting out my frustrations in this post.

Disclaimer:
If you are offended by foul language, please stop reading. Please bear with me, I am merely releasing pent up frustration.

*Mike takes a deep breath*

Putang ina kang hayop na group leader ka!! Ano ba naman ung sabihin mo sa akin na may orientation nung Monday ng 4:30!! Mahirap bay un!? Tapos tatanungtanungin kita kung bakit di mo sinabi, sasabihin mo “kasi hindi ako nagtanong”. Fuck You Asshole!! Nung sinali ako sa group mo BY FORCE kasi 2 lang kayo, I should have gotten the message that you’re a motherfucking loser!! Papagawa ka pa ng review notes na deadline ng August 2, tapos mag na nag ka sobra, tapos isusubmit mo ng August 15 kasi hindi mo pa tapos yung part mo!! Tang ina mo! Palusot ka pa na marami ka kasing ginagawa!! Hayop!! Ilan beses mo ako rinemind about the fucking review notes?! 6 na beses gago!! Ilan beses mo ko rinemind about ung orientation!? Zero you prick!! Hindi ka pa patay sinusunog na kaluluwa mo sa impyerno gago!!

As for you, you stupid stuck up bitch, porke alam mo na requirement ng mga students ung immersion sobrang high and mighty mo!! Ina mo!! I tried being polite dammit, it isn’t my fault that my group leader is GALACTICALLY STUPID!! Pero you didn’t even lift a fucking finger!! Screw you!! Tinanong kita kung ano mga options ko, sabi mo “magdasal”! MAGDASAL!? That’s the best you can fucking come up with!? ARRRGGGGHHHH!!! Siyet!! Tapos magsusubmit lang ako ng medical, dami dami mo pang sinabi hayop ka! Well, since hindi naman ako makakasama sa immersion, you can take my medical, dust it off, fold it up real nice, turn the sunnavabitch side ways and stick it up your tight ass bee-atch!! IF YA SMELL WHAT THE MIKE IS COOKING!!!

Pasalamat kayong dalawa na olats ung cellphone ko at wala camera, kung hindi, nakapost din sana mga mugshots nyo dito dammit!!

Phew. Now that its off my chest, I feel a lot better. :D