My Favorite TV/Cartoon Shows (Late 80s Edition)

Just thought of going Old School and letting the late-80s, early-to-mid-90s kid in me take over in this blog entry.

The idea of blogging about this came to me sometime ago when I realized that I don't watch any TV show anymore. Of course, I've been watching movies in theaters and Youtube videos but I'm counting both of them out. I strictly mean TELEVISION SHOWS. Movies on DVD that I watched are not considered as well. I watch at least one every week.

I tried to recall the TV shows that I loved as a kid - of course, most of them were cartoons. There were so many that I chopped up the list chronologically - from the earliest shows I watched and liked to the more recent ones. I came up with a long list. I'll post the rest of the list in later blog entries.

These were my earliest favorite shows, run sometime from the mid-80s to the early 90s:

1. Ghostbusters - Has the best opening song for a cartoon show. Four paranormal investigators/"ghostbusters" together with Janine (had to look her name up), and Slimer. Oh, don't forget Marshmallow Man.



2. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Cowabunga! Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Donatello - on their wild adventures with their Master Splinter, April, Casey Jones against Shredder, Krang, Rocksteady, Bebop, and the Foot Soldiers.



3. Transformers - More Than Meets The Eye!! Optimus Prime is an icon!



4. Care Bears - Don't laugh. I liked Tenderheart Bear, I so wanted to have a pet like him.



5. Garfield And Friends - I didn't like it as much as Ghostbusters then but I do miss the Garfield-Odie-Jon trio.




6. Saber Rider - ...And the Star Sheriffs. Another awesome opening song. I liked the guy with the red suit.



7. Dinosaucers - As a kid, I've always been fascinated with dinosaurs. I still am. How could I not love this show then?



8. Thundercats - Somehow, Lion-O's image has been etched somewhere in my memory. Yeah, I liked lions too.

 

Harvard's Most Popular Course

Guess what is said to be Harvard's most popular course? Hint: It's closer to dealing with emotions than economics.

The course Positive Psychology is said to have attracted about 855 students, making it Harvard's most popular course. The alert blog-reader who checks the links I provided might notice that the articles I referenced were written in 2006 and that the popular course claim might be applicable only for school year 2005-2006. I concede that I am unable to verify the latest statistics regarding this. However, a recent (August 9) interview by Jon Stewart with the course's lecturer, Tal Ben-Shahar, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart suggests that it is still so. As Stewart introduces his guest, he says, "He teaches Harvard University's most popular class, Positive Psychology..."

I find it interesting that the most popular course in reputedly to world's top university talks about "happiness, self-esteem... empathy... goalsetting, love, achievement..." etc. It sound like something from a self-help book although, of course, this is "grounded in serious psychological research."

Here's a link to the course description at the Harvard website and Jon Stewart's interview with the lecturer of Positive Psychology, Tal Ben-Shahar, follows:

 

Bourne Yesterday

Bourne Ultimatum ranks up there with Transformers as the best movies I've seen so far this year. I watched it yesterday.

I am giving it an A overall - it had superb action scenes, an intriguing plot, and maintained character development and continuity of story (tracing back from the first two films). I also like how Bourne's story in the film was made relevant to the times as it was deviated from the books. Having read the novel Bourne Identity first before watching the Identity film, I was at first disappointed that they didn't follow the book's story. But now, I just realized that the Bourne film series has an excellent story in its own right and at least adheres to the fundamental character struggles of Jason Bourne. By the way, if you haven't read all the three Bourne books (Bourne Identity, Bourne Supremacy, Bourne Ultimatum) by the great Robert Ludlum, I suggest you grab and read them now.

Some people didn't like how the camera was handheld in action/fight scenes because the view became dizzying and unstable. However, I am going with the original director's idea that, at least for the Bourne series, it produces the effect that you are caught up in the scene and matches closely the character's (usually Bourne's) point-of-view.

 

""Mindless Menace of Violence" by Robert F. Kennedy

Let me share one of the most moving speeches I have heard in quite a while. Short, wise, and enlightening.

I was never aware of this speech until I got to watch the movie "Bobby" on DVD this weekend. It's an account of the lives of several people a few hours before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. This particular speech of his was played at a very opportune time in the movie, and how powerful it came across.

While this was written 4 decades ago and addressed to the American people, the speech holds a magic that transcends both time and country. It is as relevant to everyone today as it was to Americans almost half a century ago. Timeless.




The text of the speech taken from here:

This is a time of shame and sorrow. It is not a day for politics. I have saved this one opportunity, my only event of today, to speak briefly to you about the mindless menace of violence in America which again stains our land and every one of our lives.

It is not the concern of any one race. The victims of the violence are black and white, rich and poor, young and old, famous and unknown. They are, most important of all, human beings whom other human beings loved and needed. No one - no matter where he lives or what he does - can be certain who will suffer from some senseless act of bloodshed. And yet it goes on and on and on in this country of ours.

Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created? No martyr's cause has ever been stilled by an assassin's bullet.

No wrongs have ever been righted by riots and civil disorders. A sniper is only a coward, not a hero; and an uncontrolled, uncontrollable mob is only the voice of madness, not the voice of reason.

Whenever any American's life is taken by another American unnecessarily - whether it is done in the name of the law or in the defiance of the law, by one man or a gang, in cold blood or in passion, in an attack of violence or in response to violence - whenever we tear at the fabric of the life which another man has painfully and clumsily woven for himself and his children, the whole nation is degraded.

"Among free men," said Abraham Lincoln, "there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and those who take such appeal are sure to lose their cause and pay the costs."

Yet we seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike. We calmly accept newspaper reports of civilian slaughter in far-off lands. We glorify killing on movie and television screens and call it entertainment. We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire whatever weapons and ammunition they desire.

Too often we honor swagger and bluster and wielders of force; too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of others. Some Americans who preach non-violence abroad fail to practice it here at home. Some who accuse others of inciting riots have by their own conduct invited them.

Some look for scapegoats, others look for conspiracies, but this much is clear: violence breeds violence, repression brings retaliation, and only a cleansing of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.

For there is another kind of violence, slower but just as deadly destructive as the shot or the bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions; indifference and inaction and slow decay. This is the violence that afflicts the poor, that poisons relations between men because their skin has different colors. This is the slow destruction of a child by hunger, and schools without books and homes without heat in the winter.

This is the breaking of a man's spirit by denying him the chance to stand as a father and as a man among other men. And this too afflicts us all.

I have not come here to propose a set of specific remedies nor is there a single set. For a broad and adequate outline we know what must be done. When you teach a man to hate and fear his brother, when you teach that he is a lesser man because of his color or his beliefs or the policies he pursues, when you teach that those who differ from you threaten your freedom or your job or your family, then you also learn to confront others not as fellow citizens but as enemies, to be met not with cooperation but with conquest; to be subjugated and mastered.

We learn, at the last, to look at our brothers as aliens, men with whom we share a city, but not a community; men bound to us in common dwelling, but not in common effort. We learn to share only a common fear, only a common desire to retreat from each other, only a common impulse to meet disagreement with force. For all this, there are no final answers.

Yet we know what we must do. It is to achieve true justice among our fellow citizens. The question is not what programs we should seek to enact. The question is whether we can find in our own midst and in our own hearts that leadership of humane purpose that will recognize the terrible truths of our existence.

We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of others. We must admit in ourselves that our own children's future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.

Our lives on this planet are too short and the work to be done too great to let this spirit flourish any longer in our land. Of course we cannot vanquish it with a program, nor with a resolution.

But we can perhaps remember, if only for a time, that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek, as do we, nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and in happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.

Surely, this bond of common faith, this bond of common goal, can begin to teach us something. Surely, we can learn, at least, to look at those around us as fellow men, and surely we can begin to work a little harder to bind up the wounds among us and to become in our own hearts brothers and countrymen once again.

 

A Little Story

One day in a farm a little boy ate the mysterious onion and turned into a magical wizard that could turn cockroaches into delicious meals so the boy wizard decided to rid his farm of crows so there would be enough food for his family because they had sold all of their supplies to send his sister to mime school so they sought Mrs. Muffinsky's help but she was on top of a gigantic muffin sailing with a crew of 8 when Santa Claus suddenly appeared with a long list of naughty elves who had crossed the line by taking the conclusion of the classic erotic sexy naughty horny elephants that would not stop kissing the little boy whose name is jamesarabbey who enjoyed the kisses so much that he popped a cherry into his mouth so it would last longer but then tragedy suddenly struck because he forgot to buy Santa Claus cookies and milk so ran to the nearest girl but this girl was busy with the long long long story that her cow was stolen by his mime sister and her pet baby unicorns but they had to return them all to the land of the candy canes and marshmallows and ate themselves to death.

******
This is just a random haphazard story we made up while waiting for the midnight screening of Rush Hour 3. The rule: each person, one after the other, writes five words - without punctuation. The authors in the 5-words-per-person writing order: Rom, Abbey, Sarah, Jamie.

 

This Newbie Driver's Learning Experiences

Last week, I took up some driving classes to, apart from learning how to drive, help me prepare for the behind-the-wheel test with the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), a requirement to get a California Driver License. Getting that license is long overdue I think as everyone has been convincing me to get it for more than a year now.

Anyway, the classes were for 6 hours and cost some considerable amount of money. Considering that I'm a newbie, I think I did pretty well in learning the fundamentals. I never had any driving experience in the Philippines, except from taking a 7-hour driving class for manual (stick-shift) transmission cars. This time, it was for automatic transmission. I don't think I am totally prepared at this point, though, to pass the behind-the-wheel exam, which involves a DMV officer observing my driving from the passenger's seat.

Today, I drove around Tarzana with Jamie just to practice some more driving. Apart from my doing wide turns, forgetting to signal the car, and other beginner's mistakes, we were going quite well (I suppose) driving from my house to hers, around her neighborhood, and towards Blockbuster and the library to borrow some DVDs that we could watch at home.

At past noon, as we went out of the library with the DVDs that we borrowed, we found out that the car won't start. Even if we turn the keys, the car engine won't even try to rev up. It turned out the night lights were left on and so the batteries died down. The car had a battery charger on the trunk that we could use. Admittedly, I didn't even know what a battery charger looked like before this day but I thought at least it has a manual that we could follow. But that wasn't our problem.

We couldn't open the car hood (and hence we couldn't charge the batteries). We were pulling the switch from inside the car but there seems to be a latch that prevents the hood from opening up for more than a few inches. The latch or hook appears to be stuck from within and there seemed to be no way to work around it.

Fortunately, the owner of the car beside us is just about to leave the library and we sought for his help. This kind man was able to open the hood in seconds. So what about the latch that was troubling us? Well, there was a small lock in the front-middle part that you have to push to release the lock. On hindsight, I can't believe we missed that. He proceeded to charge the battery while demonstrating it to us. We were also advised to leave the engine on for about 25 minutes to enable the battery to charge.

Anyway, THAT was something I didn't expect to learn this day. Much thanks to that guy who helped us. It was a crazy experience standing at noontime in the heat of the sun and being clueless on how to make a car start. I was also able to work on my U-turns, 3-point turns, and parallel parking. Thanks a lot to Jamie and the guy who helped us.

Next time, I'll make sure that, at the very least, I know how to open the hood of the car that I'm driving. Who knows, someone might come around and offer to check the engine...

 

8 Random Facts About Me.

Got this from Jason. 8 Random Facts About Me.

1. By my count, I only have 25 teeth. I also never grew any wisdom tooth. You might have noticed that the number of my teeth is an odd number. That means one tooth from either my upper or lower set of teeth is missing its opposite partner. I won't tell which.

2. My favorite number is 6. 6 is the first perfect number (1+2+3 = 6 = 1x2x3). Also, according to Martin Rees, there are just six numbers that govern the size, shape, and texture of the universe. If their values were any fractionally different, we would not exist nor would matter have had any chance to form.

3. I am of 50% Filipino and 50% Chinese descent. My dad is full Filipino and my mom is full Chinese. My features give little or no trace at all of my Chinese blood.

4. I've been called Romnel, Rom, Rom-rom, Ron, Ron-ron, Rob, Ram, Rem, Louis, Rommelito, Rominel, Rommel, Rom-ness, Michael by different people at some point in my life. I am so used to having such an unusual name.

5. My favorite tambayans in La Salle were the computer labs and the library. The computer labs are for internet access, of course. I go to the library to check on books that I could read over there or borrow, and to study especially for exams. This applies only when I'm alone. It's a different story when I'm with my friends - the only exception is when there's an exam, in which case, I am back to my hermit-self in the library.

6. I started commuting/taking the public transportation everyday between my house and school in 6th grade. I did this all the way until I finished college. My schools, Hope Christian High School, and La Salle, were both in Manila while I lived in Bacoor, Cavite then. I had to allocate 2 hours from my house to school and another 2 hours from school to my house if I wanted to make sure I'm on time. By the way, we lived in Tomas Mapua, Sta. Cruz, Manila, which was about 3 blocks away from Hope, until I was eleven.

7. My career ambitions when I was a kid were being a/an: astronaut, pilot, doctor, lawyer, engineer, and scientist. Of course, a few years later, I chose to be an IT professional.

8. Throughout college, my favorite dish was sizzling sisig. According to Wikipedia, sizzling sisig is a Filipino dish made of parts of a pig's head (cheeks, ears, nose) seasoned with kalamansi/calamondin and/or chili peppers. I thought of including this item because I just had a conversation with my mom about sisig in the Philippines and how we haven't had one since we left.

Yes, I miss sisig...