smmittos

All-Star

2005-02-04T19:12:00.000+08:00

And so the fans have spoken. After more than two months of voting, the starters for the NBA All-Star game to be held in Denver this month were announced.

Leading the polls was Houston Rockets' center Yao Ming. He will be joined in the West team's starting line-up by Rockets teammate Tracy McGrady and Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant as guards, and San Antonio Spurs' Tim Duncan and Minnesota Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett as forwards.

For the East, the leading vote getter was Miami Heat's center, Shaquille O'Neal. Joining him for the opening tip are forwards Vince Carter (New Jersey Nets) and Grant Hill (Orlando Magic), and guards LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers).

Among the ten starters, only James will be making his first appearance in the NBA's mid-season classic, with all the others having been named as All-Stars at least twice.

The seven reserves for each team will be voted in by the coaches of each conference, with each coach not allowed to vote for a player from his team.

One no-brainer pick to make the West team should be Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash. This Canadian currently leads the league in assists, and is considered to be the main reason why the Suns have been enjoying a great season so far. His game this season has been outstanding that this early, several sportswriters are putting him on top of their MVP candidates' list.

Other strong candidates include Ray Allen of the Seattle Supersonics (West guard), Dirk Nowitzki of the Dallas Mavericks (West forward), Amare Stoudemire of the Phoenix Suns (West center/forward), Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat (East guard), and Jermaine O’Neal of the Indiana Pacers (East forward).

As for the rest of the slots, there are lots of worthy claimers and one could make strong cases for each of them. Anyway, the coaches should know better regarding who truly deserves the honor of being named as an All-Star.

RP Basketball team

2005-01-11T18:01:00.000+08:00

So, it is to Vincent ‘Chot’ Reyes’ hands where the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has entrusted the mission whose ultimate goal is to give the Philippines a long-awaited return stint in Olympic basketball in 2008, as he was named head coach of the Philippine basketball team.

As expected, he will have his hands full trying to form a competitive national squad, but the full support of the PBA will make his job easier.

One of the first major test that they will face is this year’s Asian Basketball Championship (ABC), set to be hosted by Korea in August.

Although the end target is the Olympic stint in 2008, a slot in next year’s World championship scheduled to be held in Japan would also be most welcome.

Our team gets a ticket to the 2006 World Championships if it finishes in the top three in this year’s ABC. We could also get a slot even if we wind up at number four as long as Japan (already assured of a slot, being the host of next year’s World championship) lands among the top three.

Half-Blood Prince

2005-01-05T19:08:00.000+08:00

The long wait will be over soon. It was recently announced that “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will be available to its worldwide readers come July 16th of this year. This is the penultimate book in the Harry Potter series and will cover Harry’s sixth year of attending Hogwarts’ school of Witchcarft and Wizardry.

Aside from continuing where the fifth book (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) ended, this sixth book would probably set the stage for the series finale.

I started reading Harry Potter books about five years ago and came to love it. And like all the other fans of the book, have been eagerly awaiting the release of this book for two years already.

Hmmm wonder how much time it will take author J.K. Rowling to finish book seven. Hope it doesn’t take her long.

Bye to 2004

2004-12-31T20:24:00.000+08:00

In a few hours, we all say goodbye to 2004 and welcome 2005. It is during the times leading to the crossover of the year when we reflect back on the things that happened during the whole year and look forward to bright things for the coming new year.

For me personally, I have lots of blessings that came my way this 2004 to be happy about. I won’t go enumerating them all but still I am very much grateful for each of them.

And of course, I also had my share of not-so-good stuffs, but I am also somewhat thankful for them for the lessons they brought me. With the hope that the mistakes that were committed leading to those unfortunate stuffs will not be repeated.

Happy New Year everyone!

Feels like the movies

2004-11-23T18:08:00.000+08:00

I love watching movies. Friends will no doubt attest to this. But lately, I feel that I am in one. Well, actually, it’s just that I am feeling something, which some people describe as “could only happen in the movies”.

Allow me to explain. (or die trying, kasi kahit sa sarili ko, hirap akong i-explain e, hehehe)

First, some warnings: There may be lots of digressing below. And after all is written, the subject and the head paragraph may seem to not even have any sort of connection with the whole post, but do try and keep up, please. Also, pardon me, but as you’ve probably noticed, I’m not really using this blogsite to write about my deep personal feelings, so I’m not very used to that kind of writing. Still I’m going to give this a shot.

Well, here goes nothing...

A few years back, I chanced upon a story that tried to define the relationship between Time and Love. Let me summarize as briefly as possible.

“Once upon a time, there was an island where all the feelings lived, Happiness, Sadness, and others, including Love. But the island was about to sink, so they prepared their boats to leave, all of them except Love, because he wanted to wait until the last possible moment before leaving. When the island was almost sunk, Love decided to ask for help, but all the other feelings refused to help him, each with their own excuse. Finally, somebody came and brought Love to safety. Unfortunately, Love did not recognize who it was. So he went to an elder called Knowledge to ask for his rescuer’s identity. Knowledge told Love that it was Time. When Love asked Knowledge why Time helped him, Knowledge replied that:

Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is.”

I repeat: only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is. There, from that story, I found one relationship between Time and Love. I say ‘one’ because lately, I seem to have found another connection between these two. And no, I did not discover this through reading other stories. I discovered them while going through my own.

“Time flies when you’re having fun”. Now that’s a cliche that I think most, if not all of us believes in. But what I’ve discovered recently is that it (time) flies even faster when you are happy, in love. And when you are with the one you love, time just simply zooms away. Making you want to complain why time seems to be always in a hurry when you are together and why it seems to be dragging whenever you’re not. Now if only there is a Time commission or something where you may file your complaints (hehehe).

Someone commented that many people view this kind of feeling as one that can only happen in the movies (There, I’ve managed to connect back to my subject and head paragraph, hehehe). If this is so, then maybe we are indeed in one.

And I just love movies with happy endings.

P.S.
To all our well-wishers, Thank you. Thanks for all the greetings.
And of course, Thank you Simmer.

If I’m not in love

2004-11-03T13:08:00.000+08:00

Strolling along Alabang Town Center one Saturday evening, I happened to pass by the open area circle right in the middle and saw a band performing. At first, I wasn’t able to recognize who they were but the performance was so beautiful that I decided to stop, watch, and listen.

Turned out that they were none other than Passage Band, the band that gave us the song “Forever” (one of my favorites). Though they’ve had several member changes since then, the style was still somewhat recognizable. They were performing songs taken from two albums (one was a greatest hits compilation of Sergio Mendes, and the other was also a love song compilation, but from different artists) to promote them.

After spending quite some time standing at the back, I was able to spot an empty seat third row from the stage, so I quickly took the opportunity to come closer and get a better view.

It was then that they started playing the song “If I’m not in love”.

“If I'm not in love with you
What is this I'm going through, tonight...”

Vocalist Trinna Alcantara looked gorgeous in her pink shirt and maong skirt. And as she sang the first lines, she got out of the stage and came down.

“And if my heart is lying then
What should I believe in
Why do I go crazy
Every time I think about you, baby
Why else do I want you like I do
If I'm not in love with you...”

She seemed to be searching for something in the crowd, and then having found what she was looking for, she said “Eto pala e...” She then made her way and sat, guess where... in the empty seat right beside me! I heard the crowd’s cheers getting louder until I lost them and all that was left that I could hear was her voice.

“And if I don't need your touch
Why do I miss you so much, tonight
If it's just infatuation then
Why is my heart aching
To hold you forever
Give a part of me I thought I'd never
Give again to someone I could lose
If I'm not in love with you...”

She was looking at me eye to eye while singing, then she asked, “do you know this song?” and I said “yes, pero...” while putting my hand on my throat and shaking my head to show that I can’t sing (I’m not a singer nga e, hehehe).

“Oh why in every fantasy
Do I feel your arms embracing me
Like lovers lost in sweet desire...”

Playfully, she rested her head on my shoulder while she sang, and the crowd’s cheers came back to my ears (perhaps because they were amplified, hehehe).

“Oh why in dreams do I surrender
Like a little baby
How do I explain this feeling
Someone tell me...”

All the while, I was actually lip-syncing along with her. Yes, I know the lyrics, this song also being one of my favorites.

“If I'm not in love with you
What is this I'm going through...”

There was a pause, even the music stopped. She said, “say tonight” as she moved the microphone closer to my mouth. And I thought “sige na nga, baka sabihin sobrang arte ko naman kung itulak ko pa yung mic pabalik sa kanya”. I cleared my throat and...

“...tonight”

The crowd’s roar was deafening (at least to me). I said to myself, “gosh, wala sanang nakakita or nakarinig na kakilala, kakahiya, hehehe”.

“And if my heart is lying then
What should I believe in
Why do I go crazy
Every time I think about you baby
Why else do I want you like I do
If I'm not in love with
If I'm not in love with
If I'm not in love with you...”

Just like that, the song was over. After exchanging “thank-yous”, she rejoined the rest of the band upstage where they were to continue performing for another hour or so.

As for me, I stayed up until the end of the show, then met her downstage to thank her once again, and went on my way home playing the song over and over again in my head.

Katuwa, hehehe.

The race ran through here (vol.3)

2004-10-04T11:34:00.000+08:00

[Cont’d...]

El Nido - this municipality is located in the northernmost tip of the westernmost province of our country (Palawan). From Manila, it takes about an hour to get there by plane. The term “El Nido” comes from the Spanish term meaning “the nest”. Got its name because of the edible nests that are abundant in the area (These nests are actually the main ingredient in Nido soup). This wonderful place was where we left the teams competing for one million dollars in the fifth season of the Amazing Race.

Last time we left them, Chip & Kim, and Brandon & Nicole, were running neck and neck with each other for first and second place. Linda & Karen meanwhile, have gotten a slim lead over Colin & Christie in the battle to avoid elimination owing to their luck in picking the island with the correct Philippine flag.

The two frontrunning teams arrived at Lagen wall at almost the same time, and immediately set off to work. Chip struggled in trying to pull himself up using the ascender. Brandon found it to be easy though as he quickly pulled ahead of Chip. Brandon was like a house on fire, as he did not let up even once on his ascent to the top of the cliff, much to the delight of a waiting Nicole. This was in contrast to Chip, who had a hard time doing this task, blaming it on ‘being tired’. By the time Brandon reached the top, Chip was just about halfway up. And as Brandon was going down back to his partner after being given the clue at the top, Chip, perhaps in a friendly gesture called out “Hi, B-dog”. Seeing Chip struggle heavily, Brandon returned that gesture with a sort of an encouragement by saying “Keep Going Chipper”.

Opening their clue, Brandon & Nicole found out that they had to take a two-person kayak and paddle their way to the other side of the cliff towards the pit stop of this leg of the race (Lagen island).

Chip was still not through with his climb by the time the moms arrived at the cliff, with Karen herself ready to start climbing. At this point, Kim started to wonder where Colin & Christie could be, and kept on looking towards the horizon for any sign of a boat going towards them.

Karen started to climb and like Chip, found the task to be too demanding as she too struggled in pulling herself up. Seeing their partners have a hard time, Linda and Kim were praying that the boat carrying Colin & Christie would not be arriving any moment soon to give their teammates more time to accomplish this roadblock.

By the time Chip completed his climb, Kim spotted Colin & Christie’s boat on the horizon moving speedily towards them. Karen was still a long way from the top and had to rest as she felt she could go on no further.

Brandon and Nicole meanwhile, having completed the roadblock ages ago, were uncontested as they stepped onto the mat in first place, claiming the leg victory. They were greeted with “Mabuhay,” (Our standard greeting),“Welcome to Palawan”. Host Phil Keoghan upon congratulating them, happily informed them that this leg win comes with free trip to sunny Caribbean which they would be able to enjoy after the race.

As Chip was rappelling down with his clue to a waiting Kim, Colin & Christie were getting nearer and nearer to the cliff. Seeing a resting Karen, Colin got excited, saying “She’s resting, I’m gonna pass her”. And sure enough, once Colin was within jumping distance from land, he wasted no time and hurried towards the ascender, pleading with his guides to rush him up. At this time, Christie was egging him on, with her award-deserving (hehehe), “You can do it, Colin. There’s no one else I’d rather be here with right now”.

Chip & Kim quickly took off in a Kayak and paddled their way to a second place finish in the leg, assuring their spot in the three-team sprint to the finish line in the next leg.

The race to avoid elimination was heating up as Colin used his athleticism to his advantage, resting only once and only for a short bit of time as he managed to catch up with Karen. Upon seeing her rival closing out the gap between them, Karen willed herself for one more push to climb to the top, but in the end had to give up due to fatigue, shouting “Linda, I’m sorry” to her partner below. Christie was of course very happy to see her partner reach the top first and go down with their clue.

Colin & Christie were already on their kayak on the way to the mat for a third-place finish by the time Karen reached the top, with Linda shouting “you’re kids are gonna be so proud of you”. Knowing that they were about to be eliminated, they were very sad, but Linda was still keeping her and her teammate’s spirit up, saying that they gave it all, and even told Karen to just relax and not paddle anymore since she was obviously tired from the very hard climb she just went through.

Stepping onto the mat in last place Phil sadly informed the moms that they were eliminated from the race. As Karen was putting the blame on herself, Linda refused to take that saying that she (Linda) wouldn’t even have been able to climb that wall.

And so, three teams remained standing after the twin legs here in the Philippines. They are: Dating couple Brandon & Nicole, Married parents Chip & Kim, and Dating couple Colin & Christie.

[FIN]

P.S. The three remaining teams took the same charter flight out of El Nido to Manila, and from there took the same flight out of the Philippines towards their next destination (Calgary, Canada), meaning they were all again back to square one for the final leg of the race.

The race ran through here (vol.2)

2004-09-30T23:06:00.000+08:00

[Cont’d...]

The Coconut palace in Manila - this structure was built mainly from Coconut trees (around 70% of the entire building). Former first lady Imelda Marcos ordered this palace to be built with the intention of having Pope John Paul II stay here during his 1981 visit to our country. The pontiff however, declined this offer, after he found the structure to be too showy. This palace served as the eleventh pit stop in a race around the world between contestants of the Amazing Race’s fifth season.

As the teams were taking their much-needed rest in the palace, tension started to mount a bit (as expected) between Chip & Kim, and Colin & Christie. The dating couple were mad at the married parents after the latter played the yield card against them in the just concluded leg, forcing them to come in last and lose all their money in the process. Chip was trying to justify his actions by saying that it was the only way they would have had a shot of beating the dating couple. And maybe he had a point. After all, Colin & Christie came in first in no less than six out of the first ten legs of the race, and at one point had an amazing seven hour lead over the rest of the pack, a lead which they lost through no fault of their own (operating hours of places where clues can be found, and unavailability of flights caused them to lose this lead).

Having no money, Colin & Christie went around the palace asking for help from tourists, and were very fortunate enough to find lots of good Samaritans. One of the tourists even gave them twenty dollars in exchange for a kiss in the cheek from Christie.

Chip & Kim, being the first team to arrive at the pit stop, were the first to depart. They found that they had to go to Jose Rizal’s (our National Hero) Monument at Luneta Park to find the next route marker. Linda & Karen were the second team to depart, but once again, they had difficulty catching a cab, allowing Brandon & Nicole (third team to depart) to overtake them as they were able to flag down a taxi quickly. Colin & Christie brought up the rear since they were the last team to arrive.

From Luneta, teams found out that they must go to A. Soriano Aviation Hangar, and book themselves in one of two charter flights to the island of El Nido in the province of Palawan. Each flight will hold two teams, and the time difference between the two flights is 45 minutes, making it important that teams are able to get seats on the first flight out. Chip & Kim were first to sign up followed by Brandon & Nicole, leaving the moms and Colin & Christie to settle for the later flight.

Upon landing, teams in the first charter flight, after listening to the welcome song of some of the locals, took the same jeepney to the pier. And since they knew that they had an advantage of almost an hour over the other two teams, they had more time to ‘stop and smell the roses’ so to speak, as they voiced their admiration of the wonderful sights along the way. But of course this did not mean that their competitive spirits were lessened as they had the same thing in mind: finish ahead of the other team and claim this leg victory.

From the pier the two teams took separate boats to a buoy where they would get their next clue. Upon opening their clue, they found out that they had to use their binoculars and search the area for three islands with a flag each. Now, here comes the fun and tricky part. Only one of the three islands contains the Philippine national flag, and the next clue is located in that island. Teams must now choose which among the three flags they think is the real Philippine flag and go there to retrieve their next clue. If they go to a wrong island, they will be instructed to try again until they make the right choice. Making the right choice on the first try was important, as travel time between the islands is approximately 20 minutes. Of course, they were not allowed to ask their boat driver for help in picking an island.

Unfortunately, no one among the contestants had any idea on what our national flag looked like so they had to guess. Chip & Kim were the first to try out an island and when Chip opened his envelope, he found out that it was a wrong island. Brandon & Nicole meanwhile, chose to just follow Chip & Kim’s boat and ask them if it was the right island or a wrong one, without getting out of the boat themselves. This sort of irked the married couple and they decided that should they be able to get to the correct island on the second try, they would lie to them and tell them that it was a wrong one. And this time, they were indeed lucky enough to pick the correct island. Sure enough, when Brandon & Nicole asked Chip, he lied and told them that it was another wrong island. Brandon though got suspicious as instead of heading towards the third island the married couple seemed intent on going elsewhere. This prompted Brandon to go out of the boat himself and swim to the island. Learning later on that Chip lied to them, the two were naturally angry.

The next clue actually instructed the teams to go to the shoreline and find a marked beach. From there, they had to put on some snorkeling gear, then search the ocean floor for one of four giant clams. They had to open the clam to reveal their next clue.

Brandon & Nicole decided to split up in order to increase their chances of finding a clam, while Chip had to search on his own since Kim did not know how to swim. Nicole was the first to find a clam, but she seemed to be having a hard time keeping her head above water as she was screaming for Brandon to come to her. Chip, thinking that Nicole was drowning came to see if he could be of any help. But the dating couple, still suspicious of Chip especially after that last lie, thought he was about to steal their clue, and told him to beat it. Shortly after, Chip found another clam.

When the teams opened the clam, they found that they were faced with a “Roadblock”. A roadblock is a task that only one team member may perform. In this roadblock (entitled “Have Vertigo? Don’t go!” - but no one from among any of the teams knew what vertigo was), that team member must use a device known as an ascender to climb a 150-foot high limestone cliff called Lagen wall. On deciding which team member should do this, Brandon seemed a bit hesitant but had to give in when Nicole admitted that there was no way she would have beaten Chip at anything.

Meanwhile, for the teams traveling in the second charter flight, it was clear that this was going to be a race to avoid elimination. Right upon landing, they were hustling. They took different jeepneys to the pier, and all throughout the jeepney ride, kept on pushing their driver to beat the other jeepney. Same was the case with the boat ride to the buoy.

Like the two teams before them, none among Colin & Christie, and Linda & Karen knew which was the correct Philippine flag from among the three. Colin & Christie were first to pick an island and Linda & Karen decided to follow them. However this was a wrong island, and they quickly turned back. Colin & Christie was still ahead of Linda & Karen as they were making their way to the same island, when Linda spotted another island with a flag on the opposite direction. The moms decided to take a chance and go after that other island thinking that at least with this, they’ll have a chance to get ahead if they turn out to be right and Colin turns out to be wrong.

The bowling moms hit jackpot, as theirs was the correct island. Colin meanwhile was mad (again, but this time more at himself than anybody else) at needing three tries out of three to pick the correct flag. They knew now that it was going to be hard to catch up and avoid elimination again. But nevertheless, they of course sped up to the correct island, vowing to just work harder to be able to catch up.

The moms had little trouble looking for a clam and by the time the dating couple reached the beach, they were already preparing to leave for the roadblock. Colin meanwhile was quick to find a clam but was disappointed, as this was one of the clams whose clue was already claimed by another team. They were able to get their own clam shortly thereafter though, and were still hoping that they would be able to catch up as they zoomed towards Lagen wall.

[to be concluded...]

The race ran through here (vol.1)

2004-09-25T15:42:00.000+08:00

True to earlier rumors, the Amazing Race Season 5 did feature stops right here in the Philippines. There were actually two pit stops here, one in Coconut palace in Manila, and another in Lagen Island in El Nido, Palawan.

I now invite you to join me as I try to recap the events in the twin legs.

First, a brief Introduction: The Amazing Race is participated in by teams of two members, each with a pre-existing relationship. The teams will have to race their way around the world and during the course, must perform several tasks that are assigned to them by the race organizers. The team that reaches the finish line first, wins One Million US dollars.

This season, a total of eleven teams participated. But by the time the course took them to Manila, seven teams have already been eliminated in previous legs, leaving only four teams to slug it out right here. They were: Dating couple Colin & Christie; Married Parents Chip & Kim; Dating couple Brandon & Nicole; and, Bowling Moms Linda & Karen. The four teams actually arrived in Manila in the same flight so it was like starting from square one when they landed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Paranaque City.

From NAIA, the teams had to make their way to Imus, Cavite and go to Malaguena motors to find their next clue. Colin & Christie found themselves lagging behind the other three teams on their way out of the airport. This proved to be costly as all those three teams were actually thinking about using the "Yield" option on them even as they were traveling to Imus.

The "Yield" option is a new twist introduced only this season. By using this option, a team may force another team to stop racing for a pre-determined length of time. Teams that are yielded must turn over an hourglass and wait for the sand to run out before they resume racing.

Being still unfamiliar with this option, Chip eagerly raced ahead of Brandon and Linda to the "yield" spot in Malaguena motors, and quickly posted Colin & Christie's picture to declare their intention to yield them, only to find out that they also needed to post their own picture to let the team that was yielded know which team forced them to yield. At that point, I think Chip & Kim got a bit hesitant since they realized that Colin & Christie would undoubtedly be furious at them. Nevertheless, they eventually decided to exercise the yield.

In Malaguena motors, the teams faced the task of having to decorate a jeepney, which is currently the primary means of public transportation in the Philippines. The three teams have already started working on their jeepneys by the time Colin & Christie arrived. And as expected, they were enraged upon learning that they were being forced to yield. Colin was actually fuming at this point and kept throwing dagger looks towards Chip, forcing the married couple to lose concentration and fumble a bit with their jeepney decorations.

Linda & Karen were the first to finish decorating their jeepney and were handed their next clue. It instructed them to ride in their newly decorated jeepney and have the driver take them to Victoria, Laguna, which is considered as the capital of the duck industry in our country. Brandon & Nicole followed shortly after the bowling moms, and by the time Colin & Christie finished serving time, Chip & Kim have also already departed for Victoria.

Once in Victoria, the teams faced a "Detour". Now, a detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons (a la Phil Keoghan, complete with accent, hehehe). In this detour, teams had a choice between "fowl" and "plow". In "fowl", teams had to lead one thousand (!) ducks in moving from one pen to another, which is 50 yards away. In "plow", teams must choose a marked field, use a carabao-driven plow to till the soil and unearth their next clue, which is buried in the field. As expected, all four teams chose "plow", as they felt this task could be completed more quickly than trying to control a thousand ducks.

Brandon & Nicole were first to find their clue, which instructed them to go to this leg's pit stop (Coconut Palace). They were followed shortly by Linda & Karen. The two front-running teams were actually already preparing to leave the farm by the time Chip & Kim arrived. The couple lost no time and immediately started work on their field. Brandon & Nicole was surprised that there were no available taxicabs there that would take them to Manila and they had to board a bus. Eventually, they found themselves on the same bus with Linda & Karen.

Meanwhile, Colin & Christie, still mad at what they felt was a betrayal to them by Chip & Kim, were pushing at their jeepney driver to burn rubber and get them to Victoria as quickly as possible. At one point, a visibly frustrated Christie even instructed the driver to just run over pedestrians who were crossing the streets with reckless abandon. They were unable to catch up though, as by the time they arrived in Victoria, all the other teams were already sitting on buses on their way to Manila.

Colin found the task of plowing the field to be more than a match as he had great difficulty in maneuvering his carabao, who seemed to be more inclined to wander to another field. At this point, he complained loudly that "My Ox is broken!" (Quote of the season, hehehe). Finally, they found their clue when Christie walked around their field and used her feet to search.

All the teams felt uneasy riding on buses, as they had no control on the direction and speed, so they eventually decided to jump out at the first chance they get of hitching a taxicab. Colin & Christie managed to find a shuttle van along the way that they were able to hire to take them to the Coconut palace (for 50 dollars, I think). Brandon & Nicole, and Linda & Karen both got out of their buses in EDSA and searched for a taxi. Brandon & Nicole were first to hail a cab, but unfortunately for them, the driver was not familiar with the Coconut palace's location. Linda & Karen meanwhile had to wait for a while before they were able to get a cab, but got lucky, as their driver knew exactly where to go.

Chip & Kim however, were the luckiest as their bus arrived in Manila faster than that of the two teams. From there, they quickly took a cab to the pit stop and were elated that they were the first team to arrive. Host Phil Keoghan and Luli Arroyo (Daughter of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo) were there waiting by the mat to greet them and inform them that this leg win also came with an all-expense paid vacation trip to Hawaii.

With the advantage of having a driver who knew the exact location of their destination, the bowling moms pulled ahead of Brandon & Nicole to finish second, leaving the dating couple to settle for third place.

Colin and Christie, arriving last, thought that they were to be eliminated from the race. They were however ecstatic to discover that this was the last of four pre-determined non-elimination legs. They were so happy that they did not mind the penalty that went with being the last team to arrive in a non-elimination leg (they had to surrender all their remaining money to Phil, and in addition, they were to receive no amount of money whatsoever at the start of the next leg).

[to be continued...]

Checkmate

2004-09-18T14:25:00.000+08:00

Starting today until Sept. 29, Tagaytay City plays host to this year's National Chess Championships. Aside from competing with each other for the title of National Champion, participants in the men's category will be aiming to finish in the top three to secure their inclusion in the Philippine team that will compete in the 36th Chess Olympiad slated to be held in Majorca, Spain next month.

Actually, there will be six members in the Philippine men's chess team, but the National Chess Federation has already seeded three people to the team. They are Grand Masters (GM) Eugene Torre and Joey Antonio (who have been our country's board one and two players in the Olympiad for more than a decade already), and International Master (IM) Mark Paragua, who is currently chasing the third and final norm needed in order for him to become a GM himself. Incidentally, Torre will be playing in his 18th consecutive Olympiad (which could earn him a spot in the Guinness book of World Records).

Sadly however, two GMs will not participate in the National Championships due to separate reasons. GM Bong Villamayor will not be able to join since he is currently based in Singapore and is probably busy working over there. For GM Nelson Mariano II’s case however, he will not be joining the qualifying tournament by choice. This is in protest to what he calls as unfair treatment by the Federation when they automatically seeded Paragua to the Philippine team.

Personally, I'd really like it if the best possible team will be formed to represent our country in the coming Olympiad. However, without the two GMs mentioned in the preceding paragraph, I doubt it if the team that will be formed will be stronger or at least as strong as one which includes the two.

Still, I am hopeful that however the final line-up of the team eventually turns out, we will be capable of surpassing our best performance in a Chess Olympiad (7th place in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia, 1990). No matter how tall this order may seem.

The Notebook

2004-09-15T21:19:00.000+08:00

It was one of those lazy afternoons. I was chatting with a friend over the phone, when the topic shifted to movies. We quickly researched on the movies currently being shown in theaters, and among them, the movie that caught our attention the most was "the Notebook", so we decided to catch a late screening schedule of the film (late screening since travel time to the place where we agreed upon to watch the film was estimated to be between 2-3hours).

The movie is the third Nicholas Sparks novel to be filmed, after "Message in a Bottle" in 1999, and "A Walk to Remember" last 2002. If I’m not mistaken, "the Notebook" was actually written and published before "Message in a Bottle" and "A Walk to Remember" (First novel nga yata ni Sparks yung the Notebook?).

True enough to our estimate, my friend and I met at our rendezvous point three hours after we hung up the phone. By that time, the only available screening for us was the last full show, which was not set to start until after another hour or so. So, we decided to while away the time by walking, catching up some more on each other’s stories, and having dinner.

Now, on to the movie.

Actually, the movie was split into two storylines being told in parallel with each other, although it wouldn’t really take a rocket scientist to guess how these two stories are related. In the first storyline, there is an old lady (played by Gena Rowlands - "Taking Lives", "Hope Floats") who stays in a nursing home suffering from some sort of dementia. She is visited every day by an old man (James Garner - "Space Cowboys", "Maverick") who reads a story to her from a Notebook, which he carries (hence, the title). As he reads to her, we see ‘the story being told’ unfold on the screen as some sort of flashback (the ‘second’ storyline in this movie). The story he reads to her starts with a summer romance developed in the 1940’s between Allie, a rich girl (Rachel McAdams - "Mean Girls", "the Hot Chick") and Noah, a poor boy (Ryan Gosling - "Murder by Numbers", "Remember the Titans"). The movie then shifts back and forth between the two storylines mentioned.

In the 'present' storyline, we get to know more about the characters of the two main protagonists with each scene that features them. Although, for the role played by Rowlands, there is not much more room for character development in the beginning since it was already established that she had severe memory loss problems. This changes towards the latter part of the movie though, as she is able to recall back her lost memories. As for the role played by Garner, character development was done well throughout the film. The audience would be able to sympathize with and understand what he is going through by the time his role called for some emotional display.

In the 'flashback' storyline, the movie takes us on a journey to the love story between Noah and Allie. From the time they met, to the time they fell in love, and what happens after that. Of course, having been from very much different backgrounds, it was expected that their love for each other was going to encounter some severe tests along the way. If you’ve watched the trailer for this movie, then I am pretty sure that you already got the idea of what kind of trials were to be encountered by these two.

Incidentally, the movie was directed by Rowlands’ own son, Nick Cassavetes (who also directed the movie "John Q").

Overall, there were some parts of the movie that were predictable, but I’d still recommend this movie to those who love watching love stories. Just to give you a general idea, check out some of the mushiest quotes taken from the movie.

"My Dearest Allie. I couldn't sleep last night because I know it's over between us. I'm not bitter anymore, because I know what we had was real. And if in some distant place in the future we see each other in our new lives, I'll smile at you with joy and remember how we spent the summer beneath the trees, learning from each other and growing in love. The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that's what you've given me. That's what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I'll be seeing you. Noah"

"I'm nothing special. Of this I am sure. I'm a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I've loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough."

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me, 30 years from now, 40 years from now. What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once. I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out."

"Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They are shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they're gone."

Quo vadis?

2004-09-13T14:17:00.000+08:00

With their most recent setback at the 2004 Athens Olympics (wherein they went home without a medal), the administration behind the RP boxing team must rethink their strategy and figure out what went wrong. This is the second straight Olympiad where our boxing team laid a big fat egg in the medal tally (they were also empty-handed at the end of the 2000 Sydney Olympics). And, personally, I find this very disappointing, especially since it was just a short time ago when Filipinos were putting their hopes for that much long awaited Olympic Glory at the hands of the Boxing team. And who could blame them? Especially since this team was the one keeping our country’s pride soaring during international competitions from the late 1980’s to the mid 1990’s.

Here are just some of their most notable accomplishments during this period.

In the 1998 Seoul Olympics, Leopoldo Serrantes reminded the world that Filipinos are still a force to reckon with at this sport when he was able to capture a bronze medal.

In the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, Boxer Roberto Jalnaiz gave the Philippines its lone gold medal when he outclassed all challengers in the bantamweight division.

In the 1991 Manila SEA Games, Filipinos won majority of the Gold medals at stake for boxing. (six, or seven, or eight yata out of a total of 12 golds, sorry, don’t remember, hehehe). This was a major factor in our haul of 91 gold medals (good for second overall, just one gold medal short behind the then-perennial overall champion Indonesia’s 92).

In the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Roel Velasco duplicated Serrantes’ feat by capturing a bronze medal.

In the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games, the boxing team once again saved the country’s campaign as they delivered all of the country’s 3 gold medals. The champion pugs were Mansueto ‘Onyok’ Velasco Jr. (Roel’s younger brother), Reynaldo Galido, and Elias Recaido.

And of course, who could forget Onyok Velasco’s adventures during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. I remember staying up until 3 o’clock in the morning just to be able to watch the finals between Onyok and Bulgaria’s Daniel Petrov Bojilov live. And of course, I was among the millions who were disappointed, as countless of Onyok’s punches were not registering in the scoreboard. When the smoke of the battlefield cleared, four out of the five judges had the Bulgarian ahead on their scorecards, and the Philippines had to settle for the silver medal.

And so with these accomplishments, it was hoped that the team was just approaching peak form and would go all the way for more glory especially in the next Olympics. However, this has not been the case as the team has encountered several setbacks since that fateful silver by Onyok, and has been unproductive for two successive Olympiads already.

I do hope that these setbacks will serve as the proper eye-opener for the concerned people so that changes can be made to ensure the boxing team’s climb back to the top. They should start setting aggressive goals, and work hard to achieve them. For starters, I would like to suggest that they set their sights on the 2005 SEA Games to be held right here in our backyard. I think a good target for the team is for them to be able to regain our spot as the region’s numero uno in boxing by dominating the boxing matches, much like they did back in ’91. Of course this would be difficult as Thailand currently dominates the region in this sport, but I do hope our guys would be up to the challenge.

Quo vadis, RP boxing team?

I'm not a singer...

2004-08-12T20:10:00.000+08:00

...As what I announced to officemates at our company’s Christmas Party three years ago (during our group’s award winning presentation, hehehe), and then reiterated several months ago to a wider (?) audience via this blogsite.

So, naturally, singing in public (with microphone and all) is really a big no-no for me. However, so long as I am amongst friends (as in lahat dapat ng makakarinig e friend), I would sometimes (sometimes lang) give in and belt out a song or two (of course this is also as long as everyone within earshot wouldn’t mind hearing someone singing off key, hehehe).

Last week was one of those instances where I found myself having to sing in front of friends. Actually, this was so because I somewhat felt that I had to make it up to a couple of them because I failed to attend a get-together that I sort of organized (grabe, sama ko ba? pero valid naman yung excuse ko nun, promise).

And so, ahem, on to my, er, song number.

Foremost of course, I had to pick a song. The first song that came to mind was Matchbox 20’s “Unwell”. Almost half a year ago, I sang this song in Makati when I was there together with some friends from Cebu. So I thought, this would only be a sort of a “repeat performance”. Plus, there would be no more need to look at the lyrics to be able to sing this, since I already have it memorized (hehehe yabang ba?).

However, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it) the said song was unavailable.

Well, how about “Bent”, still by Matchbox 20. This was actually the first song that I recorded for an “underground” album that I did with my teammates two years ago while we were doing some voice recordings that was to be used for our project’s presentation (All evidences already destroyed by the way, so don’t bother asking/looking for a copy, hehehe).

Sorry, that song was also not available.

OK, but since I was already imagining myself as Matchbox 20’s Rob Thomas jamming with the rest of the band (hehehe in my dreams), the next song I looked for was “Push”. About this song, I once requested this song to be performed by a band playing in Streetlife, and dedicated it to a friend who was about to go to Japan to undergo a seven-month training program. The dedication was somewhat fitting since the performing band was a favorite of hers (Actually, I think she only loved that band because of its vocalist who reminded her of the lead vocalist of The Calling - Alex Band. hehehe di ba?).

Also unavailable. Strike three! Batter out?

Still persistent on ruining a Matchbox 20 masterpiece, I was now looking for the song “If you’re gone”, and there it was. Finally, a Matchbox 20 song that was available. So I took on the microphone, cleared my throat, and mumbled my way through the song.

After singing, er mumbling i mean, I thought, “Gee, what a great repertoire Matchbox 20 has”. Imagine, a song as wonderful as “If you’re gone” was only the “fourth choice”. Let’s see, it’s probably comparable to having Hector ‘the Director’ Calma as the sixth man of my basketball team, or Eugene Torre on board four of my chess team, or Paeng Nepomuceno as an alternate player in my bowling team. Yes, the song was that good.

P.S.
A few months (or a few weeks lang ata, di ko na maalala, hehehe) after the “Push” request incident in Streetlife, I went back there and saw the same band performing. That time I requested for the song “Unwell”, but they said that they haven’t yet learned to play it (the song was still very new back then), but they will practice it for next time. Don’t know if they got around to perfecting the song though, haven’t seen them again up to now.

Friendly Neighborhood Trivia

2004-07-04T18:07:00.000+08:00

I was contemplating on whether to do a review of the movie “Spider-man 2” here or just present some of the sidelights that were noticed throughout the film. And then I thought, “Oh well, instead of doing a review, I’d just recommend that you watch the movie, and proceed with the sidelights”. It was really a marvel-ous (pun intended, hehehe) movie. So if you haven’t seen it yet, I suggest you catch it before it ends its theater run. Even the negative comments made by some people that the scenes with Computer-Generated Images (CGI) were obviously unreal (come on, suspend your disbelief for a second), or that there were lots of prolonged and unnecessary scenes (hey, give the filmmakers credit for putting emphasis on certain details) should not be a deterrent to your enjoyment of the film as a whole.

Now, Here are some behind the scenes trivia from the movie.

The very beautiful artwork presented during the movie’s opening credits was created by comic book artist Alex Ross. These drawings sort of summarize the first Spider-man movie, bringing the audience up to date on what has happened so far.

The “Spider-man no more” episode pays homage to the comic book “Amazing Spider-man” issue #50. Where Peter Parker decides to trash the Spider-man costume resulting to a rise in crime (same as with the movie). Although in this comic book issue, the main villain was the Kingpin.

The scene where Peter walks carefree down the street to the tune of ‘raindrops keep falling on my head’ is actually a tribute to the movie “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”.

During the scene where Peter tries to jump from the top of one building to another (a la Keanu Reeves’ Neo doing his first jump in the movie Matrix), he fell hard on some cars causing him to hurt his back. As he got up, he was stressing how his back got hurt badly, saying “My back, oh my back”. This scene was probably meant to be a joke based on the fact that Tobey Maguire’s injured back almost prevented him from coming back and playing the part of spider-man for this movie. In fact it was rumored that Kirsten Dunst’s real-life boyfriend, Jake Gyllenhaal (Bubble Boy, Donnie Darko, The day after tomorrow) was already being lined up as a possible replacement for Maguire.

Stan Lee, who co-created Spider-man (together with Steve Ditko), has a cameo appearance in the film. He has a scene wherein he was dodging debris, although this was more like a ‘blink and you miss it’ sort of appearance. There are other notable cameo appearances all throughout the film. There’s Hal Sparks (from E!), who has a funny elevator scene with Spider-man; Also, Bruce Campbell (the ‘wrestling ring announcer’ in the first Spider-man movie), who plays the snooty usher who wouldn’t allow Peter to enter the theater where Mary Jane was performing in a play; and lots more.

The movie also gives us some hints on which super-villains might appear on the next sequel (set to be shown in 2007 yet). Dr. Curt Connors, who is Peter’s professor in the movie, actually transforms into the villain known as ‘the Lizard’ in the comic books. John Jameson (the astronaut who is J. Jonah Jameson’s son and Mary Jane’s Boyfriend in the movie) transforms into ‘Man-wolf’ in the comics. Also in the comics, Jameson, during one of his trips to outer space, brings an alien symbiote to Earth. This alien symbiote bonds with a human named Eddie Brock to form the creature called ‘Venom’. And of course there’s Harry Osborne, who could end up being either Hobgoblin or a second Green Goblin.

Aside from these, director Sam Raimi gives bonuses to hard-core Spider-man comic book fans by including lots of details pertaining to the comics. These sidelights and references will not be missed by the avid readers but will most probably not even be noticed by non-comic book readers.

courtesy, your friendly neighborhood blogger

Amazing Race

2004-06-27T17:50:00.000+08:00

Heard that Season 5 of The Amazing Race (which starts airing on Studio 23 and AXN channels next month) includes a stop in the Philippines. According to sources, the race contestants and crew were spotted at Lagen Island Resort in El Nido, Palawan sometime last February.

In the past (i.e. during and after seasons 1-4), whenever I get into discussions regarding this show with other friends who are also avid followers of the program, it would often lead to us discussing about possible places, challenges, and trials that await the contestants if ever the producers decide to make a stop here in the Philippines. However, we were not envisioning Palawan or any of the beautiful beaches around here. We were thinking more like having the contestants run around the busy and dangerous streets or something like that.

Not that I’m complaining though. We went to the said resort last year, and found the place to be magnificent. We really had a wonderful time. Well, except maybe for the part where while we were having dinner on an isolated island (which horribly enough only appears during low tide), it started raining hard and somehow we started thinking about the possibility of the island (it was called snake island) sinking faster than the time it will take for our rescue ships to bring us to safety. Of course they proved to be nothing but unfounded fears as the management of Lagen Island Resort acted quickly and brought us to much safer shores faster than we can say “glug glug glug”.

Anyway, if the rumors are indeed true, then this will be an additional reason to look forward to this season’s Amazing Race.

On your mark, ready, get set, go!

Up in the sky

2004-06-14T12:19:00.000+08:00

Like many other fans of DC Comics’ Superman, I am eagerly waiting for the Man of Steel’s return to the big screen. Especially since the last time that Superman graced the movie theaters was way back 1987, with "Superman 4, The Quest for Peace”.

However, I think there are currently two things that are keeping the filmmakers at a standstill with regards to the film’s development: casting problems, and storyline selection.

It is really going to be tough to choose who gets to follow in Christopher Reeve’s mighty giant footsteps and be the next to don the red cape. Reeve was very effective as he was able to convincingly portray both Clark Kent and Superman. He was able to convey both characters with great distinction that some people actually thought two different actors were playing Clark and Superman. As Clark, he was this mild-mannered, bumbling reporter who appears to be a weakling, While as Superman, he was a constant display of great strength, power, and confidence. Adding to Reeve’s points is his strong physical resemblance to the public’s image of Superman. It was almost as if he stepped right out of the comic book.

Personally, I’d prefer it if the filmmakers pick an actor who is still unknown. This way, when the fans go to watch the movie, they will see Superman, instead of “this or that actor who is playing Superman”. A good example in this case would be the 2003 movie “Daredevil”. In this movie, fans were seeing Ben Affleck play Daredevil, and not Daredevil himself.

Of course aside from the role of Superman/Clark, the filmmakers would still have to fill up many other colorful roles, depending on the storyline, they may include Lois Lane, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, Perry White, Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Jor-El, etc.

And speaking of storylines, I saw in several websites that the filmmakers have yet to finalize the storyline for the new film. I think they are choosing whether to continue the story from the four previous Superman films, or to start the story from scratch.

Another choice the filmmakers have to make is which among the two generations of Superman to pick. You see, in 1986, after DC released the comic book titled “Crisis on Infinite Earths”, they instructed their writers to re-write the entire Superman story from scratch, with lots of changes (mostly revolving around Clark’s and Superman’s Powers and the images they project). In the future, if I get the chance, I will write more extensively about these changes, but for now, I’ll just leave this at that.

Here’s hoping this movie gets up, up, and onto the big screen soon.

Asian 9-ball tour hits Manila

2004-05-31T21:50:00.000+08:00

Last Weekend, the 2004 season of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball tour had its fifth and final stop right here in Manila. I took the opportunity to watch the games live since the venue (Octagon Hall in Robinson’s Galleria) was just a 30-minute bus ride away from where I live (never mind the 15-minute walk from the house to the bus stop).

The preliminary rounds were held last Saturday, but due to a prior commitment, I was not able to attend. No problem, I just caught up with the action Sunday afternoon starting with the semi-final round, where incidentally, both matches featured a Filipino going up against a foreigner.

In the first bracket, local hero Lee Van Corteza (who eliminated tournament favorite Efren ‘bata’ Reyes via a stunning 9-8 upset win in the Saturday quarterfinals) was going up against Korean Jeong Young Hwa. The Korean won the first four racks, but Corteza fought back and took the next ten racks to go up to a huge 10-4 lead. And even though the Korean broke and ran out the following rack to earn back some measure of respect, Corteza returned the favor in the 16th rack to win the match 11-5 and move on to the finals.

In the other bracket, it was up to Francisco ‘Django’ Bustamante to make it an all-pinoy party at the finals, but it was no walk in the park as he found himself face to face with Taiwanese teen sensation Wu Chia Ching. Like Jeong before him, the 15-year old Wu kept the audience in pins and needles as he ground out with Bustamante in the early goings of the match. However, like Corteza, Bustamante used a huge mid-game run to send the teenager home via a similar 11-5 score, much to the delight of the highly partisan homecrowd.

Being inside the venue, I really felt the tension and excitement among the audience as the semi-final matches were taking place. They wanted to have that all-Filipino match-up in the finals so much. And now that we got what we wanted, the tension subsided a bit, since no matter what happens in the finals, the audience was assured that a homegrown talent would be the one to bring home the bacon. We now prepared ourselves for a treat as we expected Bustamante and Corteza to give the fans a good show in the finals.

Corteza was the first to strike as he opened up a 4-1 lead to start the Championship match. Bustamante however quickly found his bearings to recover and knot the showdown at 5 racks apiece after the 10th rack. Bustamante was still riding high on his momentum and took five more out of the next six racks to get on the brink of the title, 10-6. And just when everybody was about to concede the title to Bustamante, Corteza out of nowhere, suddenly sprang back to life as he swept the next four racks to send the match back to square one at 10-all.

Tournament rules state that the championship match is to be a race-to-11 racks affair. However, in the event that the protagonists find themselves in a 10-10 deadlock, the match will then turn into a race to 12. Or a race to 13 racks if they find themselves knotted again at 11-all.

In the 21st rack, Bustamante had his best break of the evening when he pocketed five balls in his breakshot. He disposed of the remaining balls just as quickly to go up 11-10. Corteza then effectively snookered the three-ball for Bustamante in the next rack, and then ran out the remaining balls to tie the score again at 11-all.

At this point, I looked around, and at my back, just a few seats away from me, I spotted the two losing semifinalists, Jeong of Korea and Wu of Taiwan, talking to each other. Jeong held a digital camera in his hand and was showing Wu some of the pictures that he took. An organizer then approached them and informed that the match will end when one of the finalist gets rack no. 13.

In rack no. 23, Bustamante uncharacteristically failed to pocket a single ball in his break shot. Corteza used this opportunity and ran out the rack with a series of difficult shots to go up 12-11. Then, in the following rack, Corteza had a nice break as he pocketed a ball and had a nice open look at the one-ball. He then wasted no time in running out the rack to win the championship 13-11.

Bustamante thus finds himself still searching for that elusive first title in this tour, where bad luck has hounded him consistently.

With the win, the 25-year old Corteza, gives Filipino fans hope that there is a future for Philippine billiards beyond 50-year old Reyes and 40-year old Bustamante. It was after all, in Corteza’s hands where the two world legends found defeat in this tournament.

Flashback: After Jeong finished his Vietnamese opponent in the quarterfinals, he was asked regarding his semi-final encounter against the winner of the Corteza-Reyes quarterfinal duel. Quite frankly, Jeong replied that he preferred to face Corteza rather than Reyes. This remark of course was understandable. Especially since it was no more than three weeks ago when Jeong was defeated by Reyes, 12-10 in the championship match of the Taipei leg of this tour. This turned out to be a classic case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for-because-you-might-just-get-it however, as he got more than he bargained for when he faced an in-form Corteza in the semis.

Let this tournament be Corteza’s way of serving notice that he should not be taken lightly again, ever.

A Tip for Voters

2004-04-30T12:10:00.000+08:00

You may want to try this before you cast your vote in any election wherein you find yourself as one of the voters. Imagine that you are the only voter, and your vote will of course solely decide the outcome of the elections. Or imagine that all the candidates have equal number of votes and your vote will be the final tiebreaker. Get it? After you have put yourself in this state of mind, it is only then that you decide whom to give your vote to. In short, you vote as if your vote is the only one that counts.

Tough, huh? Putting the entire outcome of the elections in your own hands. Too much pressure, you say? But hey, if you think about it, this is the ideal way to vote, isn’t it?

Round one

2004-04-16T18:23:00.000+08:00

The NBA Playoff seedings and match-ups have been finalized, and as promised, here are my predictions with regards to the outcomes of each of the eight battles that loom ahead in the opening round.

Let’s start things off with the Eastern Conference:

No. 1 Indiana Pacers vs. No. 8 Boston Celtics - The Pacers were the only team to surpass 60 wins for the season and have secured homecourt advantage throughout the postseason. Their amazing forward tandem of all-stars Jermaine O’Neal and Ron Artest have played very well throughout the year. The Paul Pierce-led Celtics on the other hand, had to scramble to make it to the playoffs. It will be interesting to see whether Pierce can get his way offensively, especially against Artest, who is the leading candidate for Defensive Player of the year honors.
My prediction: Pacers.

No. 2 New Jersey Nets vs. No. 7 New York Knicks - The point guard matchup between the Nets’ Jason Kidd and the Knicks’ Stephon Marbury will be a major factor in this series. The Nets have won the Eastern Conference crown in each of the past two seasons, and this gives them a slight edge in terms of experience. Expect an all-out war in this series.
My prediction: Nets

No. 3 Detroit Pistons vs. No. 6 Milwaukee Bucks - The Pistons suffocating defense is currently the best in the NBA. Their defensive play this season has in fact broken several NBA records. The Bucks meanwhile, blew a chance to claim the no. 4 seed when they failed to get a win from any of their last three regular season games. Their punishment? Instead of having homecourt advantage and facing a relatively weaker team in the first round, they get the unenviable task of matching-up with probably the most dangerous team in the East right now.
My prediction: Pistons.

No. 4 Miami Heat vs No. 5 New Orleans Hornets - This series feature two teams that went contrasting ways throughout the regular season. On one side you have the Heat, who started the season with a losing record and played catch-up the rest of the year, eventually earning the no.4 spot and the first round homecourt advantage privilege that went with it. The Hornets on the other hand, started the season strong, but faltered towards the latter part owing mainly to injuries to their key players. On paper, Hornets have a slight edge, however if both of these teams continue to play the way they’ve been playing lately, the scales will tilt in the Heat’s favor.
My prediction: Hornets.

And now, we move on to the mighty Western Conference:

No. 1 Minnesota Timberwolves vs. No. 8 Denver Nuggets - For each of the past seven seasons, the T’wolves have reached the playoffs, only to find themselves being eliminated in the first round every single year. This year, in order to break that jinx, the management has complemented their main man Kevin Garnett with a superb cast. The result was that the T’wolves powered their way to the top of the standings in the West, thereby earning homecourt advantage throughout the Western conference playoffs. The Nuggets on the other hand, made history by becoming the first team ever to make the playoffs after failing to notch 20 wins in the preceding season (they had a 17-65 win loss record last year). But they will have their hands full in trying to contain Garnett (who is having a phenomenal season and will most likely run away with the regular season MVP award - another prediction, hehehe) and the rest of the T’wolves.
My prediction: Timberwolves.

No. 2 Los Angeles Lakers vs. No. 7 Houston Rockets - Houston, we’ve got a problem. How do you stop the Lakers’ fab four of Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton from dominating this series? Will Yao Ming be able to hold his own against the imposing presence of the Lakers’ frontline? Can Steve Francis match the explosive firepower of the Lakers’ backcourt? Is coach Jeff Van Gundy capable of outwitting the Zen master Phil Jackson? Should I stop asking these questions to the Rockets, and send them suggestions instead (hehehe)? The Lakers are again in a roller-coaster ride on and off the court. Controversies continue to hound almost everyone in the organization. So, what else is new? But make no mistake. If (and this is a BIG IF) they are healthy and able to get their acts together, this team is capable of running any opponent to the ground.
My prediction: Lakers.

No. 3 San Antonio Spurs vs. No. 6 Memphis Grizzlies - The Defending Champion Spurs are the hottest team in the league right now, having won all of their last 11 games in the regular season. They now find themselves going up against the Grizzlies, who are celebrating their first-ever postseason appearance. With that 11 game winning streak, the Spurs also have somewhat installed themselves as the ‘team to beat’ in this year’s playoff war. The neophyte Grizzlies will have a hard time in contending against the playoff savvy of Tim Duncan and the rest of the Spurs.
My prediction: Spurs.

No. 4 Sacramento Kings vs. No. 5 Dallas Mavericks - Expect an exciting and high scoring series in this one as both teams share a common trademark: excellent in offense but poor in defense. Certainly the Kings are disappointed that they were not able to hold on to the no. 1 seed after lording it over the top of the conference for most of the regular season. But they only have themselves to blame with their recent collapse towards the regular season’s homestretch. As for the Mavs, their amazing 36-5 home win-loss record is tops in the league but their road record is a mediocre16-25. This could mean that the homecourt advantage that will be enjoyed by the Kings will be a big factor.
My prediction: Kings.

To the teams that I picked to win: may you play true to your potentials.
To those that I didn’t: may you rise against the odds and prove me wrong.

Good luck to all of these teams.

Election Homestretch

2004-04-15T07:34:00.000+08:00

It’s 25 days to go before the national elections, and with roughly 3 weeks remaining in the campaign period, the candidates are all hell-bent on making that one last push and doing whatever is necessary to give them the edge over their rivals and get the nod of the people come voting time.

Naturally, up to now, the presidential race is still having its twists and turns. Yesterday, the Supreme Court allowed Eddie Gil to resume his campaign after the latter filed a petition to reverse the Commission on Elections’ decision to disqualify him from the race. This was frowned upon by Gil’s namesake, Bro. Eddie Villanueva. Raul Roco on the other hand, has left his followers in a cloud of doubt regarding his health status after he withdrew from the campaign sorties to undergo treatment in the United States. Meanwhile, it seems that the never-ending unification rumors between Presidentiables Ping Lacson and Fernando Poe, Jr. took on another gear after it was reported that El Shaddai leader Bro. Mike Velarde was going to facilitate their unification meetings.

And of course, the incumbent won’t be far behind when it comes to publicity. After dodging all the disqualification cases filed against her, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has intensified her campaign to retain her post as the nation’s leader. Yesterday, she criticized FPJ (whom many consider to be her top rival for the post) for his lack of government platform.

May the best and most deserving candidate win.

Prediction hits and misses

2004-04-13T12:53:00.000+08:00

With the Denver Nuggets’ upset victory over the Pacific Division leading Sacramento Kings, coupled with the overachieving Utah Jazz’s defeat at the hands of the Minnesota Timberwolves (Current Western Conference leaders), The NBA's playoffs cast has been completed with the Nuggets taking the last bus to the postseason.

Just before this season started, I scanned the lineups of all 29 teams, analyzed all the players and coaches movements, and reviewed the results of the previous season to come up with my own predictions as to which 16 teams I thought would survive the regular season and move on to the playoffs.

My Final Result: 12 out of 16. Not bad, huh? Well, if I had gotten a perfect or a near-perfect score, I would have probably rushed to the nearest lottery outlet and rode on my momentum. Still, it can be argued that at least half of those 12 teams were practically no-brainers, but hey, a prediction is a prediction, no matter how obvious it may seem.

Following are the teams that I predicted would make it to the playoffs but did not:

1. Orlando Magic - Don’t blame me, especially after a good season last year where they came within a win short of upsetting the then Eastern Conference top-seeded Detroit Pistons in the first round of the playoffs. They have the league’s leading scorer in Tracy McGrady, they have a prize free agent pick-up in Juwan Howard, and rumor had it that somewhere in the middle of the season, Grant Hill would be able to come out of the injured list. Who would’ve thought that they’d end up with the league’s worst record? How clueless could I get?

2. Philadelphia 76ers - Allen Iverson and Glenn Robinson were supposed to team up to lead the Sixers to the playoffs. Unfortunately, I think the team went through a rocky season with injuries and internal issues. They changed coaches twice (during the off-season and once more in the middle of the season), and had that ugly controversy where Iverson refused to play in a game after coach Chris Ford suggested that he come off the bench (it was his first game back from an injury) instead of taking his usual role as a starter.

3. Phoenix Suns - Just like the Magic, all the promise that they showed last season was laid to waste this year. They had a very slow start and failed to recover. Definitely, I was not alone in thinking that the trio of 2003 Rookie of the year Amare Stoudemire, Shawn Marion, and Stephon Marbury (traded out to the New York Knicks during the season) were capable of leading them to the playoffs despite the presence of powerhouse teams in the Western Conference. We were wrong. The suns did not rise at all this season.

4. Portland Trailblazers - Will miss the playoffs for the first time in 21 years. Just like the Sixers, were rocked by internal issues. They got over those issues mainly by trading away Bonzi Wells and Rasheed Wallace, then made a late season run and almost made it. Together with the Jazz, they were the last teams to get cut from the postseason.

And the teams that I predicted would land up in the lottery but are instead heading to the playoffs:

1. Milwaukee Bucks - Got to admit, I didn’t see this one coming, Michael Redd being All-star caliber and leading the Bucks to the postseason. Apparently, Redd was just taking his sweet time playing behind the likes of Ray Allen, Sam Cassell, Glenn Robinson, Gary Payton and waiting for his time to shine. Well, that time has come and he is now considered as one of the deadliest scorers in the league today.

2. Miami Heat - At the start of the season, it seemed that the Heat would justify my snub when they opened the season with 7 straight losses. But they have caught up since. Lamar Odom has been palying solidly of late, and freshman Dwayne Wade has reminded everybody that the rookie class of 2004 is more than just LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.

3. Memphis Grizzlies - They are headed to the playoffs for the first time ever in franchise history. 71-year old Coach Hubie Brown is doing wonders in producing one of the biggest turnaround story this year. Last season, the Grizzlies coughed up a measly 28-54 win-loss record. This year, they already have 50 wins with still 2 games remaining in their schedule. I’ve also noticed that among the 8 teams with at least 50 wins, they are the only one who is without an all-star player. This could be testament to either the solid play of their entire 10-man deep rotation (i.e. no stars, just players working hard), or the fact that they were underrated.

4. Denver Nuggets - No it wasn’t just rookie sensation Carmelo Anthony, the Nuggets were more than that. They played great at the beginning of the year. And though they stumbled a bit after the all-star break, they were able to build on the strong start to fend off the late season charge of both the Jazz and the Blazers.

Congratulations to these teams.

And since we’re at it, kudos should also go to coach Jerry Sloan and his Utah Jazz. Even though they failed to make the playoffs, they had a remarkable season. Really, how many teams would have been able to withstand losing their two best players in franchise history (John Stockton and Karl Malone), and on top of that, have their would-be top offensive option (Matt Harpring) go down with a season-ending injury very early in the campaign, and still manage to make a serious run at the playoffs? When the season began, they were seeded so low that some so-called experts even went as far as predicting that they will not manage to get ten victories this year. However, leaning on lanky forward Andrei Kirilenko (who has blossomed into All-star status this year), The Jazz shocked nearly everyone by surpassing 40 wins and will finish with a win-loss record above 0.500. It is no surprise then that Sloan is being strongly considered for Coach of the year honors.

Next up, predictions for the playoffs. When the seedings get finalized of course.

Ilocos

2004-04-02T10:22:00.000+08:00

Last week, I mentioned that together with some friends, we were planning to spend the weekend in Ilocos upon the invitation of one of us who hails from that province. That plan did push thru, and we had a great time with all the travel, food (!), sights, sounds, places, water, sand, waves, corals, games, fun, laughter, and whole lots more. We enjoyed the trip so much that when the time to go home came, we were left wondering how come the entire weekend just kind of zoomed away.

Well, you know what they say, “time flies when you’re having fun”.

P.S. I was planning to post the complete details of that trip but when I finished writing, it turned out to be too long, enough to fill-up a book (ok, was exaggerating a bit, probably not a book, but it was really very long).

2K4 2Q Movie Skeds

2004-03-25T12:55:00.000+08:00

Coming at the heels of a quarter where the biggest hit (anyone dare challenge this claim?) was Peter Jackson’s "Return of the King", the third and final installment of the movie adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary masterpiece, "the Lord of the Rings" (yeah, for the rest of the world this movie opened Dec. 17 of last year, but in the Philippines, this schedule conflicted with the annual Metro Manila Film Fest, so it only hit Phil. theatres Jan. 9 of this year), the second quarter of 2004 promises to do no less as it marks the opening of some of this year’s biggest foreign movies.

First off, we have "the Passion of the Christ", from the direction of Mel Gibson. The film depicts the story of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life. Although this movie opens on the last day of the first quarter of 2004, I am considering it as a second quarter release since most of its run will fall in that period anyway (any objections? hehehe). The release date can also be considered perfect timing since it will overlap with the country’s Lenten season.

Also slated for release sometime in the next quarter are three highly awaited sequels:
Shrek 2 - It was sometime last 2001 when an ogre, a donkey, and a princess surprised a lot of people by teaming up to enable DreamWorks to break Disney’s (and Pixar’s) stronghold on animated films. Now, they come back promising to entertain us once again, as Princess Fiona takes Shrek and Donkey to her kingdom to meet her parents.
Spiderman 2 - Wall-crawling, Web-slinging friendly neighborhood Spiderman is back in this sequel to the highly successful 2002 film. This time our hero is matched against Doctor Octopus, a bitter arch-enemy from the comic series.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - First 2 Potter films (Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets) were somewhat disappointing in some areas. I’m hopeful though that this one turns out to be better, but frankly, my expectations are no longer that high. They have a new director though (from Chris Columbus to Alfonso Cuaron), so maybe, just maybe.

And then there’s "Troy", a big screen adaptation of Homer’s "Iliad", one of the biggest epic ever written in history. With an all-star cast of Brad Pitt as Achilles, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Eric Bana as Prince Hector, and many others, this film promises to be a hit at the box office. We’ll just have to see if the film can meet the high expectations of moviegoers.

Aside from these, there are other second quarter movies that are tickling my curiosity, among them are "Hellboy", "Paycheck", and "The day after Tomorrow". Hellboy is the latest comic book character to grace the big screen. While for Paycheck and The day after Tomorrow, their trailers are catching the movie-going public’s attention and winning their interest.

All in all, these movies promise to entertain film buffs like me throughout the summer season. So, see you at the movies!

Weekend Trip

2004-03-24T17:37:00.000+08:00

A friend invited us to spend this coming weekend in his hometown, Ilocos, and I am very much looking forward to this trip, although it saddens me (very very deeply, talaga) that my fellow bloggers will not be able to join the trip. I’m still hoping against hope that somehow, someway, they change their minds and decide to come along and join us for this weekend escapade. (That’s why I’m writing this article middle of this week instead of my original plan to write this on Friday, so that they’d still have time to reconsider, hehehe)

Last year, I was also invited to go there but I had to decline due to a prior commitment to spend the holy week at Canyon Woods in Tagaytay (Don’t mistake me though, I didn’t regret that decision since I had a great time in Tagaytay). Later that year, a return trip was planned, but unfortunately, this did not push thru due to the conflicting schedules of the would-be attendees.

For the activities planned during the upcoming trip, we were told that our itinerary contains lots of sightseeing, visits to historical places, and of course, swimming. Wow, I can already imagine us having fun in the sands and water of the famous Pagudpud beach!

Be ready Ilocos, here we come!

Chaos Theory

2004-03-22T12:58:00.000+08:00

Since the 1960’s, there has been a theory that has continuously baffled scientists all over the world. It goes something like “Something as seemingly small and insignificant as the flapping of a butterfly’s wing today may cause a string of events leading to a tornado halfway around the world sometime in the future”, this butterfly effect is more commonly known as the Chaos Theory.

The Chaos Theory is the underlying theme of the latest movie from the team-up of Eric Bress and J. Mackye Gruber (same tandem who wrote the script for the movie “Final Destination 2”), which is interestingly enough, entitled "the Butterfly Effect". The movie tries to show that an action that we do today, no matter how small, may have a huge effect in how the future turns out. Or working backwards, if we could go back in time and change even a small detail from our past, it may entirely change the present.

In the movie, Ashton Kutcher (from the hit TV series “That 70’s show”) plays the lead role of Evan. When Evan was a child (until his early teens), he suffered from having several blackouts, from where he is not able to recall anything that happened. When he grew up, he discovers that by reading his past journals (which he started writing when the doctor suggested that this might help him with his blackout problem), he is able to travel back in time and see the “missing pieces” that he was not able to recall during those blackout moments. Not only that, Evan also discovers that he can change the details of the past to alter the present. Armed with this idea, he then tries to alter the past to prevent his childhood sweetheart, Kayleigh (played by Amy Smart, from another hit TV series, “Felicity”), from committing suicide. At first, this turns out pretty well as he finds that in the new timeline that resulted from his interference, he and Kayleigh are happy together. Unfortunately, this bliss turns out to be short-lived as an unwanted effect from his timeline interference ends their relationship. With that debacle, Evan then finds himself continuously going back through time hoping to set things right, but instead finds that things are getting worse with his every trip back in time.

As appealing as it is, the plot is not really original. The idea of traveling back in time and creating alternate timelines have already been explored in movies like The Back to the Future Trilogy, Contact, and many others. Not to be outdone, even Television has played around with this idea in shows like Quantum Leap, Star Trek, etc. Hey, I even saw the alternate timeline storyline in animated shows like X-Men (episodes with Bishop and Forge), The Simpson’s (where Homer swats a fly in the dinosaur era and finds that this has a huge effect 65 million years later), and Justice League (where our superheroes needed to go back to World War 2 to set things back to normal).

Anyway, fans of suspense thrillers will probably find themselves liking “the Butterfly Effect” as well, so you might want to catch it at a cinema near you. The movie opened just last week here in Metro Manila, which means you still have plenty of time to watch it in the big screen.

Hmmmm makes me wonder what difference the writing of this particular journal entry will make in the next decade or so.

And then there were five...

2004-03-19T08:57:00.000+08:00

So, The Comelec finally sees through the joke that was Eddie Gil’s candidacy for President of this country, and decides to deliver him the ultimate punch line by declaring him as a nuisance candidate and disqualifying him out of the race for the top position in the land. But still, it had to take a petition filed by rival candidate Bro. Eddie Villanueva before they were able to come up with that decision.

It was a little disappointing that the Comelec didn’t see that from day one, Gil was making a mockery and a circus out of the entire election process. Or perhaps, they were sticking to Gil’s claim that he will pay the country’s 60 plus Billion Dollar debt out of his own pocket, and on top of that give each and every Filipino citizen 1 Million Pesos should he be fortunate enough to win. Yeah, Right! The man can’t even pay for his hotel and restaurant bills during one of his campaign stops. And you expect him to pay the country’s international debt? using what? Bouncing Checks? Come on!

And thus, the voters are now down to five choices: Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who is seeking to extend her stay in Malacanang for 6 more years; Movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., who is counting on the votes of the ‘Masang Pilipino”; Senator Panfilo Lacson; Senator Raul Roco; and Christian Leader Eddie Villanueva.

It cannot be overstated that our nation’s future will depend heavily on the result of this coming election. So please, I beg you, my beloved countrymen, Vote Wisely!

Coaching... a thankless job

2004-03-18T08:54:00.000+08:00

In a move that some of its fans were long expecting (even clamoring for), the Barangay Ginebra Kings revamped its coaching staff by getting Siot Tanquincen (an assistant coach of its sister team, SMB) to replace ‘the Triggerman’ Allan Caidic as their head coach in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Caidic, in turn was “elevated” to the position of Team Manager.

Throughout his coaching carreer, Caidic has received countless criticisms, mostly for his failure to win a championship for Ginebra, which is widely considered as the most popular team in the country. He did manage to lead the team to the championship round of the 2001 All-Filipino Cup (where they were defeated, 4-2 by SMB), but had little success afterwards. This is in contrast to his playing days when the Triggerman enjoyed numerous successes in his entire playing career (named as one of the 25 greatest players in PBA history, multiple national team appearances, 1990 PBA MVP, countless championships, scoring titles, mythical team selections, scoring records, 3-point king, etc etc). I myself, was an avid fan of the Triggerman when he was shooting the lights out of any gym that he stepped in.

Last year, expectations of the fans were high because they all agreed that Ginebra finally had a complete and a very talented team that was capable of dominating the league. They had players like Eric Menk, Jun Limpot, Rommel Adducul, Mark Caguioa, and Bal David leading their charge, and their bench was nothing to be squawked at either. But unfortunately, they never even got close to the Championship round in any of the three tournaments that were staged by the PBA that year. Much of the flak of course went to the head coach. Their failure was not really attributed to the fact that the players played way below the level that was expected of them.

Ron Jacobs, another former coach, who would have been the coach of the Philippine national basketball team to the 2002 Asian Games had he not gone down due to ailment several months prior to the games, said it best several years ago, “Players win games, Coaches lose them”.

Thank you for the music

2004-03-17T06:22:00.000+08:00

“Music is the universal language of mankind”
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I have been a music lover from as far back as I can remember. This is despite the fact that I’m not really good when it comes to singing or dancing. Heard someone singing out of tune and/or saw someone trying hard to dance but with poor body coordination? Yeah, that could have been me. But still, most of the time, I find myself playing a song in my head (or aloud), or moving to the rhythm of a beat (even an imaginary beat). There're lots of songs out there that when I hear playing, gets stuck in my head for the entire remainder of the day (sometimes even longer), or until the next song comes along and takes its place in my mind. This is the primary reason why my statuses in YM are mostly lines taken from whatever song is playing in my head at that particular time.

And oh boy, I can still remember the excitement I felt when I learned how to play the guitar. The thought that, “wow I am able to play an entire song with this instrument” really gave me a strong feeling of accomplishment. Unfortunately, my guitar got broken some years back, and from then, opportunities to pluck some strings came very few and far in between. Even the band that we (college buddies and I) formed during college got disbanded as the members went separate ways after graduation.

Anyway, enough of that, hmmm perhaps just an afterthought, if what Mr. Longfellow said in the quote above is true, then Music can be used to bridge gaps everywhere. Maybe music can provide the answer to all the differences in the whole world.

Here’s wishing everyone a music-filled day. :)

IE Shortcut

2004-03-16T09:05:00.000+08:00

Tip: If you want to go to a URL, you don’t have to type in the full address in the address bar of your IE, as long as the address starts with “http://www” and ends with “.com”. All you have to type is the name itself (e.g. “google”, “yahoo”, “hotmail”, etc) and then press Ctrl and Enter buttons simultaneously, and it will automatically direct you to your desired site. I’m just not sure if older versions of IE (am currently using IE 6) support this shortcut.

Got to believe in Magic

2004-03-15T09:41:00.000+08:00

I caught the semi-final and final rounds of the Vietnam leg of the San Miguel Asian 9-ball tour on TV yesterday, where Efren ‘bata’ Reyes, was out there weaving his unique brand of magic and putting a show for the pool fans all over Asia.

In the semi-final, Reyes went up against an Indian, who, from the looks of it, was completely spellbound as he made mistake after mistake during the course of the match. Reyes was unforgiving as he took advantage of all his opponent’s miscues in posting a lopsided 11-1 victory.

It was however a different scenario in the final round as Reyes was pitted against another former world champion in ‘the Cold Face Killer’, Fong Pang Chao. Chao quickly took advantage of a rack where Reyes got a “dry break” (break shot wherein a player fails to pocket a ball), to jump up to a quick 4-1 lead in the alternating-break format. Reyes however fought back and also used a dry break by Chao to tie the score at 4-all. The score was still tied at 5 racks apiece when Chao again made his move, taking advantage of a rare miss from Reyes (where he was trying to pocket the 4-ball on the corner pocket, but the shot was too thin) to post a seemingly insurmountable 9-5 lead in the race to 11 final. This, however, turned out to be the set up to the magical finale by the man aptly called as ‘the Magician’

With an imposing 9-5 lead and with the break shot in the next rack, Chao had the opportunity to probably put the match out of Reyes’ reach by going up 10-5. Unfortunately for him, the cue ball got kicked into the middle pocket on his break shot. Reyes quickly used that scratch as his cue to run out the rack and get himself back in the game. Reyes also held serve in the next rack to cut Chao’s lead to 9-7. In the following rack, Chao uncharacteristically missed on a long shot at the 2-ball to give Reyes a crack at closing the gap further. Reyes again wasted no time in punishing Chao for his mistake to take that rack and move within a rack of tying the score. In the next rack, Reyes magically produced a golden break (break shot wherein the 9-ball is pocketed), much to the delight of the crowd, to tie the score at 9-all and effectively turned the championship into a best of three affair. With pressure mounting, Chao found himself unable to pocket a ball on his next break to give the table back to Reyes. The Magician promptly cleaned up the table to give himself his first lead of the match and move to within a rack of the championship, 10-9. With the break in the next rack, Reyes had the opportunity of taking the crown without having Chao return to the table, but he came up short as he got a dry break. Chao however, failed to capitalize on this as he gave the table back to Reyes, and this time there was no denying the magician as he pocketed the remaining balls to win the match 11-9 and wrap up his third straight leg victory in the tour.

I am of course among the millions who are hoping that Reyes will carry this momentum not only through the last three legs of the tour (Taipei, Hong Kong, Manila) but over to the World championships this coming July as well.

At one point during Reyes’ masterful semi-final dominance, commentator Anthony Suntay said, “Lately, there’s been a lot of people talking about his game declining. I don’t think so...”

You know what? I don’t think so too...

Trivia: I read somewhere that the reason he has ‘bata’ as his nickname was because when he was still a kid playing in the pool halls of Angeles, there was another player there with the same name (an adult), and so to distinguish, people there referred to the magician as ‘efren bata’ and to the other guy as ‘efren tanda’. Somehow, the name stuck.

Godfather

2004-03-13T11:58:00.000+08:00

Tomorrow morning, I get to play the role of Godfather (for only the second time in my life) as the second child of one of my friends from way back high school gets baptized at Binondo church here in Manila.

The first time I became a Godfather was several months back. The mother of the child happened to be one of my close friends at the office. When we became teammates in one of the projects we were working at four years ago, she adopted me as a nephew. Haven’t stopped calling her “tita” ever since (even when everybody else in our circle of friends call her “mommy”).

From another baptismal that I went to last year (where I was asked to stand-in as a proxy Godfather), I learned that the primary duty of Godparents is to pray to God for the child, hence the term “Godparent”. Therefore, I make sure to always include baby Dana Althea in my prayers, and from tomorrow I will add baby Richard Anthony to my prayers as well.

2004-03-12T11:18:00.000+08:00

my first post...

"First time first love oh what feeling is this
Electricity flows with the very first kiss
Like a break in the clouds and the first ray of sun
I can feel it inside something new has begun..."
- From "First Time" by Robin Beck