A Little Meh on the Mutant Mayhem.

From Planet Scream to Fright Fest to Takotown.
We've been going to the Nickelodeon Halloween event since 2011. It's become our favourite holiday mecca. So this year's Nickelodeon Mutant Mayhem, we took the same ghastly expedition dressed in our usual brand of intense party gear.

Kenji as Doc Emmet Brown from Back to the Future.

Miro as Hunk from Resident Evil.

If you've read my earlier Halloween event reviews, you'd know that our standard for bar none spookfest is Nickelodeon Planet Scream.
And… it still is.

Onto my Mutant Mayhem personal review then!

It surprised us how this year's party space was made so much smaller than before. There were also smaller sponsor booths, and less booth games. This time around, the games happened on stage which isn't really that friendly for kids who are stage-shy. The result was most of the kids just lounging around the empty corners of the venue since there was really nothing much to do on the grounds. The audience area was a bit cramped, too.
The Trick or Treat lines were still crazy-long. But kids still line up for their sweets like their lives depended on it. So it's kinda heartbreaking that the loot was less than expected.

Oh! And the biggest crime… unlighted backdrop! (cue thunder and lightning) Lol! Okay, okay, I was unfair there. There was another lighted backdrop somewhere. But it would've been cooler if both backdrops were lit.

For us, the highpoint of Mutant Mayhem is the mascot floor show. Nickelodeon has the best dance numbers, I swear! And the most energetic mascots who just go with that crazy choreography like they aren't lugging pounds and pounds of foam.
From Turtle to Sponge to Star, two thumbs up all the way!

Unfortunately, the mascots weren't enough to pull our rating on this Halloween event any higher. :( In fact, less than two hours into the mayhem and we decided to call it quits. To be fair, the excitement may have started as soon as we left. Hence, this review being more personal than anything.

Thanks though, Nick! See you… next year?

DIY Creative Manipulation

Yes!  My kids have a lot of those!  From Kenji's puppy dog eyes to Miro's well-rehearsed power of reasoning --these guys can manipulate the hell out of you.  Which now makes me wonder if we have politicians in the family tree.

But I digress.

I'm talking about a different kind of manipulation.  Image and Movement Manipulation.  My kids are so into this right now that I really, really have to speed up my support system.  I need to find newer creative programs.  Better technology to match their quick thinking.  So far, their imagination is beating my resources to a pulp.

Here's their latest Mini-Movie Manips.

SPONGEBOND

Now Kenji's Mr. Bender.  He loves bending an existing thing into some kind of childish parody.  He found a 007 gun barrel desktop pattern on the net and quickly hunted for a Spongebob in a tuxedo image.  There's one in an episode where the hilarious talking sponge had to be a fine dining restaurant waiter.  He cleaned that image up.  Got the 2 pictures together.  And then blended the colors seamlessly.  Ooh... and annotated.

ANGRY CLONES

Miro took a different approach.  He's Mr. If-You-Can-Do-It-So-Can-I.  He made these popular Angry Birds images from scratch.  Gave them movement.  Gave them the actual game's play-by-play.  With, of course, matching music.  Upon completion, he was rather smug in saying, "I did that in a few minutes, Mimi!  How long do you think the Angry Birds makers did theirs?"  Ah...

Next step:  Get these boys a better Mac (our old reliable is just too slow for this kind of creative barrage now), and maybe get them into a video game designing camp come summer.

Parental support may be so damn costly... but with this kind of output, I say, worth it.

Jellyfishing, Jellyfishing!

After a year, we've finally come back to Manila Ocean Park --and, man, has the place changed!  Restaurants, novelty shops, gift shops just about every turn.  Toys, clothes, people here, people there.  Why, this aquatic park has transformed into a mall!

I was just about to blare out my outrage through carefully chosen profanities when a poster of promo packages caught my eye.  Ah, nothing tames a scorned woman than the Godsent vision of a sale.  Apparently, other than these additions to the place, there were also relevant, brand new attractions that made it into the set-up.  And they were all on extended holiday discounts!  Allelujah!

Instantly, Spongebob's influence won our decision-making.  We were going jellyfishing.

The Jellies Exhibit was in a small corner.  It almost looked like an afterthought.  Specially when we found out that you buy your tickets from a cashier under the escalator.
But the surprise lies inside.

It was dark.  It had a bar.  There were upturned chairs and tables that suggested this exhibit turns into a party place come nightfall.  The only source of light were the fish tanks which carried a different Cnidaria breed each.  Each tank changed color, bouncing the hues on the thin skin of the jellyfish.  Quite a spectacle if you ask me.

The poster said that we would get to know jellyfish ranging from the most tame to the most lethal.  I was so sure we'd see the giant killer, Man-O-War.  But this was the closest --and the tiniest-- we got.  The boys were impressed, nonetheless.  Heck, these are the minature versions of the jellyfish in Finding Nemo!

The main thing here is the jelly wall which spanned the area and breathed throbbing colors.

Or was it the cylinder room which had glass pillars housing more jellies in crazy, ever-changing psychedelic shades?

Overall, the exhibit was small.  It only seemed huge because of its mesmerizing overload of visual joy;  loud, hypnotic music; and strategic mirror trickery.
But when they say you're going to see dancing fairies here, they weren't kidding.  It was like being transported to another world.  A magical world.  A lovely, 'Whoooa, duuude!'-trippy, happy pill-induced kind of world.  And for Php150 per head, who am I to complain?

I have to wonder though... exactly how do these sea creatures feel about being treated like lava lamps?

SPONGEBARONG (ver.2)

Remember how I got completely obsessed with this barong tagalog with the cute Spongebob design for Kenji's Graduation Day?  The one with the irreverence that simply spoke to me?

Well, since I'm a complete cheapskate and because I plead personal creativity, I decided to do it myself --as if I haven't learned from my last disaster that was my DIY Kenji's birthday cupcakes.

I went through bouts of grief and sleeplessness soon after that.  I researched on barong tagalog fabrics and on the proper ink or paint that would adhere to it.  It was tough since none of the pro barong handpainters would spill their secrets online.  I was considering iron-on prints, acrylic paint, fabric paint, stick-on tattoos, even Pentel markers.

Come D-Day, Jing came home with an embroidered barong tagalog that freaked me out, to say the least.  I said we needed a the plainest barong tagalog!  When you're doing art, you don't use a used canvas!

Jing, forever patient with my stubborness, told me that there was no such thing as a plain, empty barong.  And that I can still add Spongebob to the design.  And I did!

With frakken' embrodery!  Embroidery was on the canvas already.  Adding a different medium will just cheapen the look.

But really, the last time I embroidered was in 6th grade Home Ec --so it's a dream that I actually managed to pull this off.

After 5 hours of sewing, fouling up, and resewing (and not sleeping a wink), the result was a classier version of the online Spongebarong I have been excessively preoccupied with the past few days.

People ate it up!  Even the prudes at school thought Kenji's barong tagalog was unique and clever.  And I beamed like a beacon.

Personally, I think it rocked.  Rocked even  better than the inspiration, I might add.  And for only P200.

Job well done and sleep well deserved.   God, my obsession for the inane is insane!