I'm Not a Fairy, But I'm a Godmother

For the third time I am officially a godmother, this time to baby Kumi. The Queen Apostolate (?) Church in San Jose where the baptism took place was led by this entertaining priest whose name escaped me. This was also the first time I experienced a mass that had an applause every seven minutes. I was an inactive Catholic who still have a lot of guilt in my system (and a lot of scolding from peers), so, it was a relief I was saved by the mass, in the meantime...huhuhu.

Reception took place in da Clubhouse in the Palteng's apartment complex. It was a nice comfortable lodge-like of a place with a ginormous fireplace, billiard table and gym at the back and a pool on the side (which is not a real benefit at this time of the year). The night before that, we (the three J's, H,C,P and A) fancied up the place for the Christening. We lived by the line 'last minute preparations', and the supermarket, literally a walk away from the apartment, was totally working for us at that time. With the relatives' help and a great cook named Jin (hello Jin!), we served up a modest feast of lumpia, chicken capers, chopsuey, mechado, rellenong bangus, pesto corn salad (yummy), baked macaroni and of course, a cake... My two godchildren, Kumi and Caira, who are already 8 mos. are becoming quite a head banging couple, with Caira doing the shake yer head thing and Kumi nodding her head with the music. Even I couldn't do that.

o0o

MaLuKi day! It's stay at home day. Dave and I enjoyed an AstroBoy-thon on DVD which he gave me last Christmas. The funky English subtitles are bearable, but we regained a new appreciation for this series re-make (sincerely, I'm a fan, but that shouldn't make a difference :-P). The visuals were really nice and dynamic, especially the "future" settings. Although the animation may look colorfully two-dimensional, some subtle CGI's were used. I have a muddled memory of the old series, which I thought was better and dark at that time but Atomu looked thinner now. And the Atlas character, he was a half-foot shorter; he's updated, too, no horse anymore but a rocket propeller in his body. Speaking of which I have a side story here...

May 2004
At the Wondercon, I met one of my fave comic artist from Mad Magazine, Sergio Aragones. He saw me wearing an Astroboy shirt. He was like, "I met the artist of Astroboy Osamu Tezuka at a Wondercon in San Diego years ago." And then he went on to say that of all featured comic artist, Tezuka was probably the least noticeable of all by the fans. That was a shocker, a father of manga and anime -- ignored?! Aragones got an artwork from him before he died, and he even said that if ever I get a chance to go to Japan I should visit Osamu's museum in Takarazuka (I Wikiped'd this so I won't forget). Great advice. Lastly, Sergio also told me to check Charles Schulz museum in Santa Rosa and I'm like, "I've been there in 2003"; which is so cool knowing we had the same train of thought.

AstroBoy was in syndication for a while in WB and later Cartoon Network, which was still being quietly ignored. I never get to watch it though because it was shown in the afternoon and I'm lazy to record it. I think the kids never bought the drama of a robot with a heart. One reason why AI by Spielberg never clicked with the audience as well.