Have you or haven’t you?

Have you tried the Magic Sing? It’s a microphone that you attach to the television and presto, you already have a videoke machine to sing along with to your heart’s content. The microphone has a compartment that houses "chips." I assume they work in the same fashion as our cell phone’s SIM card because they keep data and help the microphone function. One music chip has hundreds of songs.

I’ve been seeing the newspaper ads for Magic Sing for quite awhile, and I was really curious about it. During a visit to Tower Records, I asked for a demonstration and I was amazed. There was a couple standing by the counter and the wife told me that the first night I would have the Magic Sing, she was sure that it would keep me up all night because it was just so addictive! And she was right.

The songs are pretty well orchestrated, and the lyrics are surprisingly accurate. If you’ve been to videoke places like Family 21 and IO, you’d know that there are numerous videoke selections out in the market that truly mangle the song’s lyrics. The only setback is that the backdrop for the songs barely changes, unlike the produced videoke selections which sometimes even showcase choice tourist destinations around the Philippines.

The Magic Sing lets you change the song’s key and tempo to best suit your vocal capabilities or lack of thereof. You can program the songs to have the melody playing to help you keep in time, and you can also adjust the level of the vocal’s "echo" effect.

It’s a great invention, and really loads of wholesome fun. The best part is that you can make a fool of yourself without the whole world witnessing!

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Have you tried the new Nokia 7250? I had stayed devoted to my 6310i for nearly a year, but I succumbed. This phone is compact, the built-in digital camera captures pictures quite clearly, and the memory is impressive. I’ve been downloading so many polyphonic tones, until I realized that it was already starting to cost me dearly. The moving images that have been sent to me by friends are really very amusing, especially because of the high resolution colored screen!

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Have you read John Grisham’s latest, The King of Torts? The figures involved in the cases that Clay Carter, Grisham’s latest lawyer brought to life by his imagination, are mind-boggling. Can you fathom lawyer’s fees amounting to more than $100 million for one case? It’s a fast-paced read and it ends with a satisfyingly moral turn, especially because it’s a lawyer who does end up losing the millions of dollars he’d almost effortlessly amassed, yet he manages to end up with the woman he truly loves.

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Have you seen Johnny English starring Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson? I was never a big fan of Mr. Bean, mostly because I found it difficult to identify with his humor, but I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Almost everyone in the theater where I saw the film was laughing out loud for most of the film. I think the appeal of the character Johnny English was his simple-mindedness, which he’d cover up with some clever antics and his desire to project an image bigger than what he really was, although he’d be the first to admit when he’d fumble and stumble. He’s the everyman who has his moment to shine, relishes the spotlight and manages to surprise himself and his audience with his sincerity and his sheer luck!

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Have you heard the voices of Nina, Nyoy Volante, Jimmy Bondoc, and Paolo Santos? They are OPM’s current hottest. We recently had them on Morning Girls together with the phenomenal Aiza Seguerra. Nina can give Mariah Carey a run for her money. Nyoy is theatrically trained and sings with soul. Jimmy Bondoc is exceptionally gifted as a songwriter, I am in love with his composition Let Me Be the One which he also produced and released. Paolo Santos came from the corporate world, and looks meek and slightly nerdy, but once he starts demonstrating his vocal prowess, you’ll wonder how someone slight of build can sing with such strength.