Author: Lauren

True Blood is a stupid show. I realized this halfway through the second season, when the show became more about the gratuitous sex and other forms of fan service rather than the tension between vampires and humans. It’s too bad, because the first season had a fairly tight story, likeable characters, and enough suspense to make me want to marathon one episode after another. After the season 2 finale, which had a terribly corny ending that I will not spoil, I rolled my eyes and vowed to never watch this show again.

For those of you who are completely lost, let me explain what this hot vampire commodity is all about. Adapted from the Southern Vampire Mysteries novels by Charlaine Harris, True Blood is premised upon the idea that vampires have “come out” and decided to live with the humans. They claim not to be the bloodthirsty killers who only view humans as walking lunch boxes and to prove this, they’ve resorted to drinking synthetic blood created by the Japanese. Set in the mystical American south, the show is supposedly about the vampires’ struggle to fit into society, but somewhere along the way it degenerated into the NSFW version of Twilight.

The show is centered around a Mary Sue of a female lead, Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin). She’s your typical God-fearing white girl-next-door, except she’s also some sort of telepath. She cannot have intimate relations with people because she hears their thoughts, especially during physical contact. This is why she falls in love with a vampire named Bill (Stephen Moyer); for some reason, she can’t read vampires the way she can with humans and she feels at peace with someone for the first time in her life. There’s also a really hot vampire named Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) who is older and more powerful than Bill. He also as a thing for Sookie, which I don’t understand, because she’s so wholesome and dull it sickens me to look at her. Sookie works in a bar, where her boss Sam is apparently some sort of shape-shifter. Guess what, he has a thing for Sookie too! There are a bunch of other characters, but I won’t talk about them because they faded into the woodwork after the everyone-wants-Sookie angle became True Blood’s dominant theme.

You’re probably wondering, if I hate this show so much, why am I even blogging about it? Well you see, I learned that season 3′s first episode would show Alexander Skarsgard’s nekkid ass. How can I resist? Just look at how gorgeous this man is! So I downloaded the episode, watched it with my boyfriend (who hated me for it afterwards), and found a reason to continue watching True Blood once more.

WARNING: spoilers, sexual content, and NSFW images up ahead!

Behold – Alexander Skarsgard’s ass in all its naked glory! In this particular scene, he was having sex with a human girl hanging from the basement ceiling. Rawwwr.

However, this scene didn’t thrill me as much as another scene that followed shortly after. This I did not see coming!!!

OMG.

OMG!

OMG!!!!!

OMG!!!!!

Needless to say, I have never been this titillated while watching a TV show. I kept pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t just hallucinating the sexual tension between Bill and Sam. My boyfriend spent the entire scene rolling his eyes at me, understandably so. If you really come to think about it, this scene was absolutely unnecessary. It did nothing whatsoever to move the plot forward, nor does it allude to any previous sexual tension between the two characters. In fact, the blatant homoeroticism pretty much came out of nowhere. Normally, this sort of bad writing would have irritated me, but guy-guy love gets me giggling and squealing like a delighted high school virgin with a secret stash of yaoi. I’m guessing this scene worked for hundreds of girls too, especially if they grew up with Anne Rice’s vampires like I did.

Needless to say, as long as you keep thinking of True Blood as girl porn and not a TV show with an actual story, it’s actually pretty watchable. Writers, please keep the homoerotic tension brewing and create more sex scenes for Eric.

Screen caps from Geeky TV

The Dado ancestral home in Baguio has always been one of my favorite places on earth. I’m more inclined to think of it as my aunt’s house though, because she’s responsible for all the country-inspired knick-knacks and quilts – some of which she even made herself. After revisiting the Baguio house for the first time in years, I realized that I can’t spend the rest of my life in a tiny shoebox of a condo. I too want a house of cute things.

My Sundays are normally spent catching up on sleep and being lazy in general, but not the one that just passed. I was up well before noon, doing something I’ve always wanted to do – learn how to use a gun. Anyone who has seen a zombie movie or played a survival horror game knows that you’re pretty much screwed unless you have a nice big gun to keep the forces of darkness at bay. Problem is, I didn’t know how to shoot a gun. I didn’t know where to find a shooting range and didn’t know anyone who was interested in that sort of thing. And to be perfectly honest, I’m a little afraid of guns and the power they have over life and death. Yes, I know that that it’s the wielder and not the weapon who kills people, but that’s precisely where my apprehensions came from – I’m pretty clumsy with gadgets and wouldn’t trust myself with a gun. But apparently my friends do because there I was, anxiously watching my friends fire at their targets last Sunday.

You can’t enter the range without goggles and earmuffs, and I soon learned the wisdom of these safety precautions. Apparently, guns make a deafeningly loud sound. Every time somebody fired a shot, I’d jump a little and pee in my pants. Well, not really, but the sound rattled me enough to nearly chicken out when my turn came.

Ken warned me that the shooting range staff might not do more than hand you the gun and let you figure it out for yourself, but I found that this wasn’t quite true. My instructor was quite helpful and did a great job of reassuring me that no, the gun will not backfire and send the bullet straight into my forehead.

My first few shots were actually pretty good – I’d hit the target on the chest, close enough to the white bulls-eye but not quite. Then at some point I started getting scared by the loud bang of nearby guns, which made me miss my target by ridiculous margins.

My boyfriend did the smart thing and waited til he got used to the sound of firing guns before giving it a try.

After a little more practice, I finally got my first head shot. Looks like I might survive the zombie apocalypse after all!

Once we had used up our handgun bullets, everyone took a whack at the shotgun. Well, everyone except me. The shotgun looked large enough to break my shoulder when it recoils, plus I was still a little rattled by the sound of all that shooting. Even after everyone had their turn with the shotgun, I still couldn’t find the nerve to get near it.

Marco says the recoil wasn’t actually as bad as he thought. It feels like a push and doesn’t hurt if you press the butt completely against your shoulder.

When I saw his target up close, I finally understood why shotguns are one of the most powerful weapon you can use in a survival horror game. There was actually a spray!

In retrospect, firing a gun was actually quite fun. I just wish I weren’t deathly afraid of the sound they make.

After the shooting range, we headed back to the Kengdom to play a game of ultimate frisbee at a nearby high school. This was another thing I wasn’t entirely prepared for. I was under the impression that Ultimate Frisbee with Geeks would involve lots of goofing off with a disc, what with everyone being so unfit and all, but the whole thing suddenly became a tad serious and competitive when a pro joined the group. I didn’t realize that the game involved a lot of running around, especially when a team scores a point. Needless to say, I was easily one of the worst players, not only because I’m out of shape but because I was starving. I ended up sitting out the last half of the second game, too fatigued to take a photo even though my camera was right beside me. I’m really not one for organized sports, especially when I know that I suck at it, but maybe I’ll do better with some food in my belly and an energy drink down my throat next Sunday.

(Wow, that last sentence made me suddenly aware of how old really I am. Fifteen years ago I wouldn’t have thought twice about running out to the street to play patintero with my friends. Now I need food and energy drinks to run around a field and catch a frisbee. Will I still be able to run 15 years from now?)

Spent my Saturday morning getting prettified by Bambi for my Blog Na Pinoy portraits. Blog Na Pinoy is this new blogger directory organized by Juned with the help of renowned photographer Michael Sy Yu. But unlike the average blog directory, which is a simple list of blog URLs, every blogger listed in Blog Na Pinoy has his or her portrait photo taken by Michael Yu himself.

My blog is listed under the lifestyle section. Don’t ask me what kind of “lifestyle” this blog describes, because I pretty much just dump all sorts of not-so-personal stuff here. I wanted to use this photo, but you can’t really see the details of my military jacket from this angle.

My beauty/fashion blog I Am Bourgeois is there too!

A few things I realized during the shoot:
1) This blog needs a makeover, but I’m too lazy to fix it up myself and too cheap to pay someone to do it.
2) My skin looks terrible. I have to get a skin needling treatment next month to get rid of my remaining acne scars. It’s been over a year since my last one.
3) I need to go on a diet. I’m getting fat, and Hip Hop Abs three times a week is not enough to keep me skinny. No pastries, fried food, fast food (pizza included), sugary drinks (including diet soda and iced tea), or carbs for dinner until I start seeing results.

2010 has been a year of awesome vacations for Marco and I. Last month, we spent a week eating and shopping at Bangkok. This month, we were determined not to let the summer pass without going to the beach, something we’ve been too busy to do since last summer’s trip to La Union. I didn’t want to suffer another round of bumpy six-hour bus rides to La Union so we ended up booking three days at Coco Grove in Laiya, Batangas, which is only two or three hours away from Manila.

Marco and I didn’t intend for this trip to be a romantic vacation – it happened quite by accident. Some of my high school friends were supposed to come with us but they canceled at the last minute because the resort could only accommodate us on weekdays. The biggest perk about working freelance is that you decide when your weekends are. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to share the experience with your friends, unless you had enough foresight to book a weekend months in advance. Another thing about Coco Grove is that the rates per person get cheaper if there are more of you in the group. In the end, only one friend was willing to take three days off work but she didn’t want to pay too much for her stay.

The commute to Laiya, Batangas wasn’t as long as La Union, but it sure involved a lot of transferring. At 4:30 am, we got a bus to Lipa, Batangas from the JAM Terminal station at Cubao (P230 for both of us). When we got down at Lipa two hours later, we had to take a one-hour jeepney ride to the San Juan Public Market (P60 per person). From there, it took us another thirty minutes to get to the resort by tricycle, which cost us an expensive P300. I could kind of see why the trike ride cost so much; the resort is really that far, plus it’s not like there are any passengers coming back to town with the driver. For this reason, I would suggest that anyone commuting to Laiya spend around two or three days in the resort, if only to delay the inevitable hassle of commuting back to Metro Manila. Resorts like Coco Grove also allow day trips, which is a great option if you have a car.

Once I finally laid my eyes on Coco Grove’s grounds, I knew the commute was definitely worth it. The resort itself is dotted by shady trees and tropical flowers to evoke the sensation of a real tropical paradise, which went well with the crystal blue waters and the white-ish sand. As for our treehouse, it is probably the most gorgeous beach accommodation I’ve ever had in my life! I’ve never stayed at a treehouse before, especially not one so close to the ocean. Ours was literally a few steps away from the water, providing us a picturesque view of the waves and the sunset from the balcony or the porch. Unfortunately, this beach wasn’t very good for swimming; the shore is littered with seashells and the shallow areas are covered with slimy seaweed. But our proximity to the water also gave us one other unusual luxury – the ability to enjoy the sounds of the ocean while taking a dump.

Our treehouse cost around P8,600 for three days and two nights, and includes three meals a day plus access to the resort’s other amenities. It’s a little more expensive than what I’m used to but after that long tricycle ride, I could see why the resort owners though to include meals with the package. The food is very lutong-bahay, which probably won’t appeal to those with snootier taste buds, but it suit Marco and I just fine. I love Filipino food by the beach, especially after a long swim, and Coco Grove was very generous with its portions. Each meal includes around two or three viands, plus rice, a glass of iced tea, and dessert. Shortly after I took this photo, a lady came with a plate full of tuyo and kamatis. Mmmm.

I’m not a morning person at all, but I would get up at 7 or 8 to enjoy a cup of Coco Grove’s strong barako coffee. It’s so delicious that even Marco has a cup during breakfast, and he’s not exactly a coffee drinker.

Oddly enough, the other thing that made this trip a romantic vacation was our lack of foresight. If we booked a weekend months before like any conscientious traveler would, we’d be smack dab in the middle of the resort’s 700-strong weekend crowd. On a weekday, however, the place was practically deserted. There were only two other groups when we arrived on Tuesday morning and when they left later in the day, we pretty much had the resort all to ourselves. “It’s the perfect setting for a horror movie,” I said to Marco, who replied with, “If this were a horror movie, it’d be called ‘Coco Grave’.”

Besides water sports, Coco Grove also offers a number of interesting facilities. The following day, we took a leisurely stroll around the resort’s nature trail, which quickly turned into a brisk-walking activity for me. I noticed a number of small holes in the ground and I didn’t want to stick around long enough to see the creatures that made them. I also got the opportunity to overcome my fear of wonky hanging bridges and seesaw-type bridges.

The trail ends with a large treehouse; if you climb the very top, you get to slide down to the beach using a zipline. Unfortunately, my fear of heights won over this one.

The nature trail adventure took about an hour tops. Aside from a quick swim at Coco Grove’s White Beach (where the nature trail ends), Marco and I didn’t really do a whole lot except lie around the beach and be lazy.

The sunsets were breathtaking. I wish we could have stayed there forever.