I Know What Anne Hathaway is Getting From Santa For Christmas!

Ho! Ho! Ho! Is this gonna be on Santa's nice list or naughty list?

I'm talking about that curious incident that happened to Anne Hathaway at the New York premiere of her new film Les Miserables. "Little Anne Hathaway" decided to show up and the paparazzi had a field day! And by little Anne Hathaway,  I mean....ehhh, you know what I mean! It was all over the news!

The next day (and night), Anne was all over American TV saying how mortified she was that it happened, while managing to also talk about her movie. Pretty convenient, huh?

She said in a morning show:

"It kind of made me sad on two accounts. One was that I was very sad that we live in an age when someone takes a picture of another person in a vulnerable moment and rather than delete it, and do the decent thing, sells it."

And I’m sorry that we live in a culture that commodifies sexuality of unwilling participants, which brings us back to Les Mis, that's what my character is, she is someone who is forced to sell sex to benefit her child because she has nothing and there's no social safety net."

Now, I love this girl. LOVE HER. With or without her panties.

But there are some points I'd like to raise from this...because, you know, it matters to the quality of my life. And yours. [/sarcasm]

First, I've kept tabs of her Saturday Night Live appearances, the three times she's hosted that show and I've seen most of her movies. (Did I mention that I love her? LOVE HER!) There's this one particular movie that stands out to me right now: Havoc, where she didn't seem to mind baring it...for the sake of art. So, I'm not so sure if she was such an "unwilling participant"--- as she said in the interview, in this one. (BTW, clever use of words --- "unwilling participant". It has the tone of a publicist!)  Anyway, to have her "commodified" wouldn't be so pitiful, nor right, nor wrong in this context. Because this is how the game called "Hollywood" works (where Hollywood = commodity). And I guess, she has to play it, if she wants to survive it, right? Work is work. Business is business.

I know, I know...you will probably want to point out --- why would a movie like Les Miserables, with its powerhouse cast, resort to this type of publicity? I could be mistaken, but ...people have shorter attention span these days. We are easily distracted by a lot of things. We are doing ten things at the same time with our gadgets and our social media profiles. A movie like this? It's actually a hardsell.  Especially when not everyone appreciates musicals....and culture, for that matter. At least not a typical, average movie-goer. Les Miserables could be easily forgotten with the next scandal or hot news (named Kim Kardashian) swooping --- errr whoring --- the spotlight for their next 15 minutes. Because so much stuff is going on in the world already and we have 24/7 access to it, the hype around the movie has to be sustained. And how you do that? With stunts like this! Boom!

Second, why she wasn't wearing any undies is really not anybody's business. Not even her mom's. She can do whatever she pleases, no matter how many women will say it's uncomfortable to be without clothing down there. Thrush, cooties and whatnot? That's her problem!

However, anytime a woman steps out of her bedroom wearing no panties should be aware that anything can happen. Much so, if she's a woman stepping onto the red carpet knowing these paparazzi are gonna be crouched down to the ground with their zoomers zooming up the butt. I've learned this watching a little bit of TMZ 101. Apparently, Anne didn't. Not even after a similar incident with Paris, Britney and Lindsay. I'm not saying she brought this upon herself. Or that she shouldn't have forgotten her undies. All I'm saying is --- being aware, of yourself and your surroundings? Very important!

Third, I saw the photo without the pixelation and I dunno about you but... if you've seen one vagina, you've seen 'em all. Which is to say that, this exposure? Not really a big deal!  Only, the media is making it so. Why? Because she's gorgeous Anne Hathaway, with a high profile movie about to hit the theaters. Sleazy photographers will grab the opp to sell something audience (us!) will buy.

Which goes back to my first point: This is a stunt. That needs to trend and remain trending. It got people to talk, at least for a day (or two, or five).  And it will have people remember, at least until the movie starts its run and then people can talk about the movie then.

Meanwhile...Hollywood? The system wins again. Someone's definitely Ho! Ho! Ho-ing! all the way to the bank with this. $$$

The Family Without The Christmas Spirit

Unlike most houses everywhere, we still have no Christmas decorations in the house to this very day. In fact, we haven't done this for years. Or I haven't done this for years. I think I've stopped putting up decorations the year after my son became a pre-teen and was no longer thrilled by all the lights and colors. When I stopped doing this, no one seemed to mind the lack of decoration in the house, just as no one seemed to mind to help when I put it or clean it up afterwards. This year, the most you'll probably see anything "Christmas" in this house is through the placemats I'm planning to use on Christmas eve, and the lunch and dinner that will follow the next day.

Unlike most families everywhere, Christmas in our house is celebrated without presents that will be opened on Christmas eve. The gifts we have for each other will either be given as it is, with no wrappings or trimmings; or have been given way ahead...like back in September. This year, my son actually knows what he's getting coz he's the one who chose it. There will be no pretty packages and no surprises. I find that celebrating Christmas with my boys? Not quite the production I get when I celebrate it with girlfriends or my big extended family.

On Christmas eve, we would eat Noche Buena like most families. Only, dining at 12 midnight is something we also do on some nights when one of the boys start craving for a midnight meal. So midnight feasts? Not something out of the ordinary.

There will be no parties and there will be no partying at other houses. Visits to friends or families will be done any other day. But on Christmas day? We're having a staycation, we're pigging out and settling on the bed with our gadgets and devices. We would all be hooked up to the internet or probably watching something on TV all day, as always.  Together, but each preoccupied with doing something else.

In fact, I will be working for 10 hours the day everyone is celebrating Christmas. It is not something I decided without consulting my boys, of course. But when I told them I've been asked to render 10 hours of work on Christmas Day, both my boys said to go ahead and do it...."We're all gonna be doing the same thing we do everyday on Christmas, anyway." 

My family's lack of enthusiasm for Christmas may be really weird for others. But it's the kind of "family tradition" that works for our small unit. Reunions, the crowded-but-fun Christmas parties (that I also enjoy, just not with my boys!)? My boys would be bored by it, to be honest.

The other day, my Mom was reminding my Dad, who is going to visit our hometown for Christmas, to not forget the gifts and the treats for family back there. What my Dad said, sounding slightly miffed at the reminder given to him the nth time, is perhaps the best way to describe what Christmas is really like for us, particularly our son, the husband and I. He said, "We always give them gifts and treats and do the same 'special' stuff even when it's not Christmas anyway, so what's the difference?"

I Saw The Sign and so This is My Favorite Movie for 2012!

I watched Pitch Perfect a total of three times in about five days. Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.

I'd be so bold as to declare Pitch Perfect as my favorite movie of the year. But I admit that the storyline is quite thin and formulaic. That's forgivable, however, because the characters in this movie, despite the tropes and stereotypes, really shine and complement each other.

I love the energy and the vibe of the film. Anything that has dancing or singing in the plot is worth-watching for me. A bonus, if it makes me laugh, too.

But I really wasn't expecting to enjoy the movie this [                  ] much. Never mind if I've been singing Ace of Base's "I Saw The Sign" in my head a lot after watching.

Pitch Perfect stars Anna Kendrick who reminds me of a younger version of Tina Fey. I wasn't aware Kendrick could sing beautifully, or that she's a celebrated theater actress. I think I first saw her watching Up In The Air, where she worked with George Clooney, and I liked her performance there. But I also saw 50/50 and I barely remember her on it. With Pitch Perfect, though, I think I've just turned into her fan.

Equally surprising was finding out Brittany Snow and Anna Camp could also sing. I like these girls when I see them on TV.  I appreciate them better as performers now, knowing how musical they can be, too.

Apart from the singing, Pitch Perfect is a girly girl's movie featuring this blossoming romance between the lead character and a cute, perfect-boyfriend type of guy, who can also sing really well. Yet it's not nearly cheesy as many chick flicks are.  In fact, there were moments when I got the same feeling I had watching Say Anything, which is only the most romantic film in my book.

The movie also makes use of a reference to a scene from The Breakfast Club, which I think made this whole thing even more appealing to me.

I believe I'll be watching this movie a fourth, a fifth, or maybe a tenth time this holiday break, coz that's how much I really enjoyed it!

Here's a short trailer, if you haven't seen it yet:

Big Butts and Nail Polish, Who Would've Thunk It??

Oh, wow....I finally get to use the word "thunk" haha!

From the Urban Dictionary

I was browsing online when I saw this. Beautiful holiday shades, I thought. Perfect polish colors to wear for Christmas, I thought.

A closer look revealed that these lacquers are actually contained in a bottle that's shape like a woman's butt. Big, round butts. Shocking!

And the product is aptly called BOOTIE BABE. Ha! How...cheeky!

I can't seem to get passed the shape of the bottles. But they do offer really nice colors, I know I would wear it if I could get my hands on it. That is, after I stop giggling about the bottle. Because I am immature.

Seriously though, why would anyone think to use this container? Is it a prank product? A fetish? A sex toy?

According to this site, Bootie Babe is from Mark 'O Hara, a San Francisco-based designer and funk musician who used to be in a band called SuperBooty.  The band has since broken up. But back when they had gigs, O' Hara would often come up with band merchandise featuring a lady's derriere as its logo.

In designing Bootie Babe, he said he wanted something that would stand out. And he's quite right about that. Those bottles sure are different!

He says of his polish collection:

"Some women don’t appreciate this product because they think it’s sexist. But they love it in Brazil!”

 “My band was so silly. It would be great to bring a little levity to the beauty industry. Why can’t it just be fun?”

He's kinda right about that, too!


Time Magazine is said to be featuring the product this week, according to their Facebook page.

So, how about that? I suppose those butt bottles make this product quite interesting. But ultimately, it's the choices of colors and the quality of the lacquers that will make this sellable.

What We Can Learn from That Prank That Went Royally Bad

You've probably read or heard this news this weekend. One of the nurses at the hospital where Kate Middleton stayed for a few days due to HG, committed suicide just two days after a prank was pulled on her and her co-nurses. This prank was done by two Australian DJs, "shock jocks" as they call them, whose program is known to do this sort of thing.

The nurse who took her life was the one who picked up the DJs' call and patched it through Kate's nurse. In other words, she wasn't able to screen the call, and so the other nurse thought they really were talking to the Queen of England and gave updates about their patien's condition.

Here's a proper report:

Cropped from Sky News

People have been too quick to blame the DJs for pulling this prank, being the instigators of what others say was a mean joke.  To a some extent, I would agree that the jocks are not completely blameless. However, this story has sprung so many other issues that made me realize a few things:

1) This is no longer the era of Candid Camera. This is the era of Twitter and Facebook; of social media where most "breaking news" happen even before legitimate news agencies have it.  The stunts pulled by pranksters today are bolder and more dangerous. And yet they continue to exist because there will always be someone who will "get" the joke and would want more of it.

Is it bad to like pranks? Most people would say it isn't nice to laugh at someone else's expense. While I admit that I get a kick out of watching Japanese prank videos on Youtube and I laugh really hard at how "Wow, Mali!" pull theirs, I would probably not be laughing if those happened to me. I don't know how it is on the radio, but I am aware that on television,  most of these shows normally have to ask their "victims" to sign a release before they can air it. But when something like this happens to you even if you don't consent to having it out in public, you still cannot take the experience of the humiliation back.

And when it's on the internet, it's there forever.

The game has changed for us now. Anything we do or say can actually be used against us with just a simple video upload or a photo update on Twitter.

People on the internet can sometimes get too carried away and make a big deal out of the littlest things. I'm fully aware of this, being a netizen who has bitten into the hype more than once. And that's the reason why campaigns like this exist.

2) We have lost sight of respect and compassion for others. By its very nature, pranks have all the intention of mischief.  By its definition, "mischief" is supposed to be just playful. You know... like how kids are being playful. It's supposed to be naughty but harmless, and that you'd have to have the tiniest bit of sense of humor to appreciate it.

But like I said, the pranks pulled today are so dangerous, lines can be crossed. Which is to say that our actions really have this ripple effect on other people.

We can never assume that the other person would be okay with what we do. What we can learn from this is that maybe before we actually pull something off, we need to think about its repercussions a million times. And then, if we clearly see that the other person is not okay with what's been done, then maybe the best thing to do would be to ask for discretion to avoid offending further.

3) We need to be armored with resiliency. Because humiliation can immediately go on a global scale, if our heart is too weak for it, the anguish of going through the motions can be truly unbearable, to the point that taking your own life may be the answer.

But...news flash:  life is already challenging long before the world changed. Unfortunate incidents happen and continue to happen to all of us. There will always be that person who will cross us and offend us. So what could be so, so bad that the only solution would be death?

Suicide, they say, is the act of the weak. And I would've believed that statement a few months ago, only I just recently lost a family friend because of it. It still baffles me a great deal, to this day.  Which brings me back to what I said earlier: we can never assume we know what the other person is going through.  What we've got to do, though, is learn how to cope with life's challenges, bounce back and pick up the pieces.

All Boxed Up!

Have you subscribe to any of these box-y deals online? I dunno what you call it, but after the group-buying system that become such a hit last year (Groupon, Metrodeal, and so on), this is probably going to be next biggest buying concept that will spawn a lot of copies.

I first learned of this last year, while helping run a Gossip Girl site (in which case I had to live and breathe Gossip Girl stuff I could find anywhere on the internet). One such boxing service (seriously, what are they called???) released an exclusive box filled with beauty products apparently used by the girls on the show. Like so:

Photo Credit

I really liked the idea, but since it wasn't available here, I never paid attention to the nitty-gritty of the concept of these boxed freebies. (I still dunno what to call them!)

But we Filipino folks usually catch on pretty fast. Because we now have four of these services in our midst.

Take your pick!

Salad Box

Glamour Box

BDJ Box

Sample Room

How it works is that you pay a certain fee monthly or for half the year,  and every month, you should receive a box of goodies or sample products from different health and beauty companies. Some of these boxes contain items of 4-5 or even more, costing over Php2000 if you buy them at stores. Membership is between Php450 to Php650 a month. I'm not sure if this includes the shipment fee, though.

From these four sites I've listed, only Sample Room requires no fee at all. But you get to try a product for FREE, as long as you have enough points to avail of it and if you pay the shipping cost. I'm already signed on to Sample Room, which debuted this week, but I haven't used my free points yet and will wait for the offering next month.

For the rest of these...box sites (give me a term please!!!), I've read countless of blogs with their unboxing entries and photos of what are usually inside these boxes. You can google them up if you're curious. The sites also feature the products offered, by the way.

Most of the items are available locally, but some boxes do contain products I've never heard before, or are probably only seen at bazaars.

You can read up on how their system works by following the links below:

Sample Room - HOW IT WORKS
BDJ Box - HOW IT WORKS
Glamour Box - HOW IT WORKS
Salad Box - HOW IT WORKS

They also have their own Facebook pages, so follow and like the page to get an idea.

Are you going to sign up?

What Would Lord Grantham Do?

I was supposed to be a part of a field trip today. And by field trip, I mean I was supposed to be part of this small blogger event.

We were invited to go to this plant tour somewhere in the south and I've been really looking forward to it because 1) I use a lot of this company's products, 2) I haven't been in a field trip for so long, there's something I know I can learn from this trip, and 3) after all these years, it's my first time to join something organized for bloggers, I could start networking then.

By 6 AM, I was prepared to leave the house to go to the directed meeting place. Only, the help I've been counting on to arrive early, never arrived at all.

Days prior to this, I've been asking the help if she was alright with the schedule and if it was okay for her to come to work really early. Each time I asked, she gave me a solid yes, so I didn't think we would have any problems.

I wouldn't be able to go if I couldn't find someone to be at the house. She knows that drill too well, having worked for me for awhile now. I needed her mostly because I really require someone to watch over my dogs when I'm not home. This sort of thing is what most people would probably consider as  #firstworldproblem. But like I mentioned in a previous entry, my dogs can be high maintenance and I couldn't gamble on leaving them just like that. Fortunately, this doesn't happen often because I have the husband and the son to rely on. But on this particular day, when the son has to be in school and the husband is still oversease,  I really, really needed help. And I was assured I will get help.

To cut the long story short, I was not able to go to the field trip. I didn't even receive any advise from the help until 3 PM today. Her excuse was lame, as expected. Something about her kids getting sick since Tuesday and how she's been neglecting them. Which I don't really understand because she comes in 4x a week only and works between 8:30am to 3:00pm.  This is the first time she's become unreliable and this has been her first no-show. So, what gives?

[/end rant]

Based on my conversation with her, it wasn't also clear whether she plans to return to work anymore. So I could probably be without any help for a while again. Most days, I could survive without a maid.  I like doing chores in the house. But these dogs we have, they take a lot from me, you know? So having someone else come to sub for me could do wonders for my sanity. I guess that's really what I'm paying them for.

Domestic problems are very common. We've all been there. We've all come up with decisive ways to deal with it. I seem to have one year after year, which only strengthens my belief that it's really hard to find good help nowadays.

I still don't know what my plan is with this helper situation. Do I even consider letting her come back or should I just find someone else and make new adjustments again? I really don't want to re-train someone and have her get used to the dogs and vice versa.

Oh, well.

WWLGD?

Lord Grantham is the Earl of Downton Abbey, a fictional English aristocratic house with 20+ servants. Lord Grantham does not experience trivial problems like mine because when one servant is unavailable, he can just ask the 19 others on his beck and call. And he has only one dog, so....