LATEST CRAZE

A Bike and Gas Price Hike. This morning, I went for a jog around the mall again-- after three months of not doing it. Surprisingly, there are more people this morning, and a lot of newer faces.

After about four laps, I stretched and sat for a couple of minutes on the steps fronting Starbucks. An white man in his late 20s on a bike stopped in front of me and asked if I could watch his bike for him while he gets himself a cup of coffee. I did. He wasn't dressed to jog or bike- he wore a gray long sleeved shirt, a yellow tie, black pants and leather shoes, and a yellow helmet to go with his yellow tie!!! He came out of the store and sat beside me saying, "Hey man! Thanks for watching over my bike...I'm ++++, I bike to work!" Soon after I gave him my name, a middle-age Chinese man holding a cup of coffee walked by and said, "Nice bike!" He later told us that he owns a Bike store, and how Bike sales are surging to record highs in the last few months. He relates the surge in sales to the surge of Gas price! More and more people, apparently, are buying bikes to save money on gas!

Lately, I have been thinking of getting myself a bike since my office is just 1 mile and a half away from home. My problem with biking though is that I sweat easily, I don't want to go to work in the morning like I had just been to a rough work out in the gym, plus of course, I don't want to ruin my lungs with the world-renown Manila air pollution!

Indiana Jones: Frustration (Spoiler Alert!). Yesterday, I was all out excited for the man flick! After two hours, I was like-- "What in the world did I get myself into?"
When the movie opened with a scene in "Nevada, 1957"...I thought, "Oh no, I have the feeling this will have to do with aliens!" When the Russians found what they were looking for at Area51-- the body of an alien life form, I knew at that instance that the movie will be about aliens! Indeed, it is!

The Crystal skull is the actual skull of aliens that came to earth 5000 years ago and helped established the Mezo-American civilizations! The lost skull they all searched for in the movie is one of the thirteen aliens who ruled the early native Americans. Near the end of the movie, when Indy and the other characters stood on a hill looking at the destruction of El Dorado, the city of Gold, a huge flying saucer lifted from the valley and flew away!
In terms of action, well, it still bears the Indy signature of long vehicular chases and amazing stunts! But there's this 20-minute-long car chase in the jungle! Why does it have to be that long? Shia LeBeouf is a good actor though.

What ever happened to Lucas and Spielberg? Have all the creative juices been extracted, and all that's left are stale ideas from a distant past? A friend I watched the movie with suggested that the two legendary film makers should buy homes in Florida or France and retire. I'm sure they have more amazing movies in mind, the latest Indiana Jones flick just isn't one of them.