Night at the Museum

If I was a movie critic I would probably give Night at the Museum a slightly negative review, but I'm just a normal movie watching dude so I guess it was entertaining enough. Besides, I've been wanting to watch any movie for quite a while, and there are so few decent movies showing this time of year for some reason.

Anyway, it's like, they came up with a simple enough idea for the movie: "Ben Stiller is the nightguard at a museum where everything comes to life at night!", and then they exhaust all the wacky situations that they can get out of that premise and tie them together into a movie. A very big chunk of the movie is composed of Ben Stiller running around the museum jumping from one random punchline to another with the different museum exhibits. Escaping the T-Rex skeleton... running from Attila the Hun... slapping the monkey... Some of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny and some of them are pure cheese. The result is a mixed bag, but overall the movie was enjoyable enough. :->

There's really just a drought of good movies lately. Last weekend's #1 grossing movie in the US was "Epic Movie", a cheap Scary Movie-like spoof of everything that has yet to get a single positive review. :|

A Moalboal weekend

Last weekend I went along on an overnight beach outing to Moalboal with Loren and a bunch of her call center workmates. Moalboal is something of a tourist destination for its beaches and dive spots on the western side of Cebu. I've never been there before, or to anywhere on the western side of Cebu for that matter, so here was a chance to add another bulletpoint on the places-I've-been-to-list, as well as fill up the time of what would otherwise be a very mundane and lonely weekend.

We left Cebu City on Saturday morning. Funny thing is, aside from me, all the people that went along on this trip were call center people that worked the graveyard shift the previous night. So at any given point in the trip, about a third of the group was asleep and the rest were sleepy. And then there were the weird energetic people that seemed to stay awake a full 36 hours or so.

The accommodations we stayed at were, honestly, miserable. Before we arrived, the person in charge in the group emphasized that it's not a resort, it's "simple living". It had two double beds, and our group was composed of about 15 people. The walls were made of naked hollow blocks and the floor was bare cement. It had a non-flushing toilet, and the bathroom door was a curtain. The place had the feel of an abandoned construction site. Simple living indeed. Anyway, I spent most of my time outside and very little in that room.

The beach itself was just alright, but not quite good enough to justify the time and expense of the two-hour trip to get there. Maybe it's just that my standards have been set too high by all the other nice beaches in the Philippines. The sand was fair colored, but not nearly as fine as the sand in Boracay or Bantayan. The ocean floor was kinda rocky. A few people complained of itchiness due to jellyfish in the water, though I didn't see or feel anything myself. Hmm, I'm starting to sound negative... the beach wasn't bad, it was just "alright".

That night I slept on a banig laid out on the sand under the open air. I don't think I have ever slept so "exposed" before, but I felt safe enough since I wasn't alone. It wasn't comfortable, of course, but it was worth it just for the experience of sleeping under the stars and waking up with the sunrise.

You've got to admit it's getting better

For all the ridiculous gloom and dispair you hear about from TV and newspapers ("Only hell can be worse", William Esposo says!), there's a whole lot of exciting progress and development going on in the Philippines.

Whenever I go home to Dumaguete -- which is about every 3 weeks or so -- one of the highlights of my trip is seeing all the stuff that's changed in the city. It's visible even from the window of the bus once I arrive, and the progress always surprises me: Newly cemented roads, newly painted buildings, new construction projects, new renovation works, new beautifications... I even try to give myself a walking tour around downtown to check out all the stuff that's new. I'm only away a couple of weeks at a time, but it seems whenever I come back there's a bunch of catching up to do.

I took this picture yesterday at the Boulevard, where they're paving the floor with bricks. It's looking really great and I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product. There's still some construction dust on the floor here, but this pic is already perhaps my favorite city scene.

Aside from the Boulevard renovation, other Dumaguete developments to watch include the city's first McDonalds, the Robinsons mall, Dumaguete Business Park infrastructure, Negros Oriental Hotel and Convention Center, the rebuilt Po's Marketing, Check Inn Pension House, Silliman Medical Center annex building, Silliman Portal West Building, another under construction hotel near Lee Plaza, a bunch of newly cemented roads, and so many more other little things.

There was an unfortunate fire in the city last week that destroyed a few nice downtown buildings. But on the bright side, when ever something burns down in Dumaguete something better has taken its place.

I like Dumaguete, I really do. Maybe working and living in a major bustling city made me realize how charming and livable Dumaguete really is. People can live simple happy somewhat-rural lives. It's a big city with the aura of a small town where everyone knows everyone. Cebu's downtown area is relatively post-apocalyptic.

Cebu is actually chugging along very nicely too, in spite of the dirty places. Lots of developments and skyscrapers rising. If the rate of development in Dumaguete and Cebu are any indications of the rest of the Philippines, we've got a whole lot to be thankful for.

Reminds me of that happy Beatles song:

I've got to admit it's getting better
A little better all the time (can't get no worse!)