Ola! Blog of Z is now back on track! Thanks to Philhosting dot net for FINALLY restoring my database although I’ll need to repost my “Under Construction” post, which incidentally contains my disappointment of this particular service provider.

Do you know what I did because I am so tired of site downtimes and server problems of my Windows hosting subscription? I ordered a new domain and a new hosting space, this time a higher plan (P100 per month) and on Linux. You would think it’ll be on another Web hosting company. But, no. Yes.

I researched for reliable hosting companies and discovered that their prices start at $5/month. That’s for unlimited server space and bandwidth, excluding domain registration. No way I can see that as practical in the meantime.

So please wait for my new blog announcement. I’m currently setting up the site. I honestly don’t know how I’ll manage to keep another blog running, at least with regular weekly posts, but I’m taking the chance. For now, I’m going to rest. My eyes are hurting from looking at the computer monitor for so long that I wish I have a nice lamp or any other cool light fixtures at home so I won’t have to keep the fluorescent light on at night. I could use a little dim effect.

I wasn’t able to access this blog for almost two weeks because my hosting provider suffered server malfunction. Their Windows server, which is where this site is hosted, was apparently attacked by hackers and crashed. It was such a frustrating time for me because it wasn’t too long since they had a problem with their Windows server. My hosting fees are uber cheap (PhP 50/month), so I tell myself that I shouldn’t be surprised at the poor service, but still I feel like I bought a car with a power steering rack but doesn’t have an engine. Now I have to reconstruct some posts and sidebar items that I’ve lost because of the database and account files transfer. Stay tuned.

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there. ~Will Rogers

The word I’m thinking about is effort but the operative word is “now.” As in if I want to finish the three books I recently bought, I need to start with one now. If I want to keep this blog alive, I need to finish this post and pay for my hosting bill as soon as possible. If I want to lose some weight, I need to start going back to the badminton courts or to the gym, or else start popping Phentermine. If I want to know what’s the deal with the back and side pains, I shouldn’t put off going to the doctor any longer. If I want to know what I want, I can’t just keep on wanting. I realized that in my attempts to not sweat out the small stuff, I lost sight of the big picture. But it’s just so much easier that way!

[season 4, episode 15]

Scully to Mulder:

(voiceover): I feel time like a heartbeat, the seconds pumping in my breast like a reckoning. The numinous mysteries that once seemed so distant and unreal, threatening clarity in the presence of a truth entertained not in youth, but only in its passage. I feel these words as if their meaning were weight being lifted from me, knowing that you will read them and share my burden, as I have come to trust no other. That you should know my heart, look into it, finding there the memory and experience that belong to you, that are you, is a comfort to me now as I feel the tethers loose and the prospects darken for the continuance of a journey that began not so long ago, and which began again with a faith shakened and strengthened by your convictions. If not for which I might never have been so strong now as I cross to face you and look at you incomplete, hoping that you will forgive me for not making the rest of the journey with you.

Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be translated as “Remember that you are mortal.” Scully was diagnosed with an untreatable form of cancer and is coming to terms with it.

It seems that no matter how many new shows pop up and no matter how much I enjoy watching them, nothing can ever replace what The X-Files has meant to me. So I’m starting this new category – bits and pieces of episode recaps, random quotes, real-life analogies, and eveything I want to discuss about a show that has long been gone but will never be forgotten. I think my hosting space can contain it – be prepared to read everything from Mulder and Scully’s gazes to William’s (their son) baby bedding; from alien green goo and monsters of the week to science vs faith debates. If I can get you at all curious, I dare you watch it on DVD, everything from start to finish, and let me do my share in pushing for a third movie.

If you haven’t discovered it yet, also try to double-click any word in this post and in this whole blog. It may come in handy with some of the passages I plan to quote in the future.

I mean her creator and alter ego, Tina Fey.

AP photo

The funny lady won big at the Emmys, although her show, 30 Rock, is still one of the most underappreciated shows on TV today (despite winning the Best Comedy category for 2 years in a row). If I hadn’t been living and breathing the Internet, I probably wouldn’t even know about it. As it is, it’s one of my most favorite shows these days – each episode lasts just about the right time to keep me amused and laughing (about 20 minutes without commercial break); it’s just my kind of comedy. To be honest, if not for this show, I wouldn’t be able to specify what my kind of comedy is (although I enjoyed F.R.I.E.N.D.S. a lot).

The third season is set to premier on October 30. For now, enjoy these clips from the previous season.

Episode Cooter (clip: Jenna pulls out all the stops to get Kenneth to Beijing).

Episode: Succession (Liz goes Corporate!)

Is by NOT doing them while lying down.

I’ve been wearing contact lenses for years now and I didn’t know that I have astigmatism on one eye and none on the other. I mean, my glasses and contacts have a grade of 200 and I thought all it meant was that I have bad vision. While I was shopping for reading glasses, I underwent the standard “vision test”; they show me this chart with lines originating from a center going outward to form an illusion of a circle, and I have to identify if all lines look to have the same density. My left eye said no, while the right one said yes. So I asked the optometrist if that can still be corrected and she told me that I have to correct my bad habits as well – reading and watching TV while lying down. Now, I’ve been told that since childhood and I never really listened. I usually only watch TV before I go to sleep and, besides, I don’t have a comfortable sofa or chair in my apartment. Well, I guess my small, wooden study chair will do for now. I’ll just imagine that I’m watching my favorite TV series or movie in a huge plasma TV inside a home theater seating system, with all high-tech sound system and stuff.

A friend of mine recently showed me a prenuptial picture of a relative – the couple was standing on the edge of a sidewalk, under a huge digital signage and beside a road sign that says “Couple Kissing” in place of the usual “Pedestrian Crossing.” It was a cute shot. That brought us to discuss how lucrative weddings can be. If it’s risky business for the couple to tie the knot, it’s serious business for the wedding planners, florists, designers, wedding singers/hosts photographers/videographers, and others. My friend, who also recently got married, is currently honing her skills and talent to become a full-pledged wedding planner. Now, that’s something I surely would like to see come to be.

I’m dreaming of beaches again. I used to think that I’d someday like to retire to a place where I can hear the ocean crash into shore every single day – some place where green mountains are within the view of my bedroom window. My house doesn’t have to be grand, but I hope the beach would be spectacular. Even now, I long for that peace and sense of calm. It wouldn’t be an escape but a homecoming of sorts. I’ve always felt that I belong closer to nature more than to the hustle and bustle of city life. It’s not as if I’m dreaming of far-flung places like the Caribbean or luxurious homes like Barbados villa rentals (although getting there for once wouldn’t be so bad).

That was the plan. But if global warming and these crazy weather trends won’t scare me away from that dream, the allusion to solitary life just might. Because really, spending my last few years on earth living like a hermit isn’t really what I have in mind.

Keira Knightley reportedly auditioned for the upcoming remake of My Fair Lady, in the presence of the great Cameron Mackintosh himself (producer of such gargantuan productions as Les Miserables, Miss Saigon, and Phantom of the Opera, among others). She is said to have “impressed” but is not yet confirmed for the role.

I think she’ll look good as Eliza Doolittle. If anything, she shares with Audrey Hepburn that uber-thin frame and ethereal beauty. I’m not sure about the singing, though, and she had said that she would definitely want to push her limits and try to hit the high notes herself if she’ll land the role. I can believe that she got drunk before she auditioned. I will, too, if I was her. I can already imagine her nailing that Cockney accent and screaming like a madwoman as Eliza often does. Any young woman who acts like that now would go straight to a drug rehabilitation center!

It’ll be a lovely (or loverly, as Eliza would say) role. I wouldn’t want to see any other non-singer, Hollywood starlet take the role, anyway (although I’ll take someone unknown but with a gorgeous voice like Julie Andrews’), especially one who is too busy going to one drug rehab after another to have been familiar with this classic Cinderella story. Keira’s wholesome image, and the fact that she seems to be at her best element in period films, would work just fine.