My Preciousssssss...

I’ve been collecting all sorts of things since I was very young… stamps, records, comic books, toys, trading cards, newspaper clippings, magazines, old paper money, old coins, and a whole bunch of other things, including many things that most people would probably consider as junk. And, every time I would decide to include something to my ever-growing collection(s), I’d always think that someday I might be able to make a fortune out of it.

But, somehow, I seem incapable of letting go of anything from my collection… so much so that I am still regretting having sold my near-mint copy of X-Men #1 [1991(?) with the complete fold-/spread-out cover] when I was still in high school… siiiiigh…

I’ve been approached by two different persons in two different occasions offering to buy two different items from my collection… one was offering to buy an old book (which I bought from National Bookstore’s “Previously Owned Books” for P150.00) for P1,500.00 (even after I told him how much I got it for)… the other was going for an old comic book…

I declined both offers (without even a second of thought).

Hmmm… how do I put it… They’re miiiiiine!!! Look but don’t touch! If something bad happens to them I’ll kill you!

They’re all my preciousesesssss… hehehe…

Among the numerous and ever growing number of items I have in my collection(s), there are a handful which I consider the MOST precious of all (though, not necessarily the ones with the highest monetary value… not that I have any plans of selling them. I can’t and I wouldn’t… I just wouldn’t!).

I’ll let them speak for themselves…

Danielle Fishel – I was a fan of the show “Boy Meets World” before, and I thought she was adorable. :)


Pat Boone (left) and Alicia Silverstone (right)


The Simpsons (left) and Johnny Mathis (right) – I get MISTY while looking at these. The Simpsons is not signed though.


Tim “The ‘Toolman’ Taylor” Allen (top-left), Ben Savage (bottom-left, also from the show “Boy Meets World” and the younger brother of Fred Savage from the show “Growing Years”), Phil Collins (top-right), and Dean Cain (bottom-right) – Except for Phil Collins, all are hand-signed on the reverse side.


Luciano Pavarotti (left), Harrison Ford (top-right), and Christina Ricci (bottom-right) – I can’t figure out if the Harrison Ford and Christina Ricci photos were hand-signed (having a hard time looking for “tell-tale” signs), but Pavarotti’s definitely is! (May he rest in peace…) However, I still can’t decipher the word he wrote above his signature… but I suspect it’s Italian.


Steven Spielberg – I am quite certain that this was not hand signed (about 95%)… but the letter that came along with it is simply wonderful (even though it’s a form letter)


Soledad O’Brien (left) and Marisa Tomei (right) – at that time, Soledad O’Brien was an anchor at “The Site”… I was a huge fan of the show, and it was that show that taught me how to work with HTML.


Bruce Willis (top-left), John Goodman (bottom-left), and Michelle Kwan (right)


Shannon Miller


So you see, many of these have my name on them… THEY gave ME these… they “spoke” to me on a personal level! I suppose by now you understand why I wouldn’t ever part with them.

Okay, let’s face it… even IF I wanted to sell them (which, I repeat, I WOULDN'T), I wouldn’t be able to command high prices for some of these because they have my name written on them (unless, I think, I’d become as famous as they are).

Anyway, I received the first one (from Danielle Fishel) on February 8, 1996 and the last one (from Shannon Miller) on February 24, 1999.

Suddenly I’m reminded that I should find a better holding place for them real soon as the cheap photo album they’re stored in right now will surely (albeit slowly) damage them over time.

Taking a Not-So-Wild Guess at the Fourth Indiana Jones Movie's Plot

I missed something in my previous post. All that time I had been reading all about the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull, I didn't bother reading about F. A. Mitchell-Hedges. It all makes a lot of sense to me now.

Wikipedia's entry on F. A. Mitchell-Hedges mentions about him being thought of as the inspiration for the Indiana Jones movies. Could he be... Could Indy be...

Now, here's my guess on the story of the film, though I won't bet anything on it. Possible spoiler follows… that is if I’m right.

Indy will obviously discover the crystal skull, probably with the help of Shia (who could be the male version of Anna Mitchell-Hedges), after which he will have the same fate as F.A. (being accused of discovering a "fake" artifact) because tests would show that the skull could not have been made earlier than the 19th century. Then, if there will be aliens, he will be “saved” by them from eternal shame, proving (either through peaceful communication or hostile invasion) that the skull is really very old (like 3,500 years or perhaps older). If not, well, he will definitely be “saved” one way or another. Then, after that “shameful” experience, Indy will finally hang his hat and call it quits. That, in my opinion, makes for a graceful exit, rather than quitting due to old age.

Let’s wait and see.

Update (Spoiler): As I was preparing this for posting, looking for an image to go with it, I accidentally stumbled upon some news (or rumor) that aliens will indeed be part of the movie. Read about it yourself by clicking here.

The Fourth Indiana Jones Movie

I can’t wait for the fourth Indiana Jones movie to come out! I am keeping my hopes up that it will be better than the earlier three movies. So far they’re saying that it will be. It’s just amazing that nothing much about the movie has come out up to this moment unlike what happened with the Transformers.

It was months before the movie’s release when the Transformers movie script leaked out. There were also tons of production photos and concept art popping up everywhere on the net (which Paramount endlessly tried to censor).

Soon after, people connected to the movie were trying to dismiss the leaked script either as a fake or, as Michael Bay had put it, an outdated version of what he was actually using for the final movie. Well, it was not a fake. Outdated maybe, but only to a miniscule degree.

There is nothing like this, so far, happening with the Indiana Jones movie. The film’s producers even sued Tyler Nelson, a ballet dancer who was cast as a “dancing Russian soldier” in the movie, for spilling the movie’s plot during an interview with an Oakland newspaper (Edmond Sun). This has led to a Superior Court order which found that Nelson have “knowingly” violated an agreement (which he signed) which barred him and everyone else involved in the film from discussing anything about the film to the public.

Although nothing much can be found about the film on the net or elsewhere, the title has officially been released. It’s called “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”.

Although I am not a very religious person, I was hoping that the fourth installment to the Indiana Jones franchise would be about another biblical artifact. I was quite disappointed that it’s not. Of the past three installments, I liked “Temple of Doom” the least. Maybe it’s because I don’t know anything about those glowing stones he was chasing after there. And until now I have not bothered finding out more about them. I hope I will not have the same feelings for the “Crystal Skull”. I still have time to find out about the real Crystal Skull before it comes out. For those of you who want to know more about the artifact, try googling for Mitchell-Hedges Skull.

So, what can we expect of the film? Well, I guess, just as for anything that every tomorrow brings, we can only hope for the best.