2008-06-29

Sports Limited

There are upsets, but at least there's one to be glad about.

Wimbledon 2008

In the men's singles, Andy Roddick is out of Wimbledon by day 4 - so is James Blake. Plus, Novak Djokovic was defeated by Marat Safin on day 3 - could this be a comeback? Well, it better be so he could stop Federer from dominating Wimbledon again. If not, let's hope at least Rafael Nadal or Lleyton Hewitt will get the job done. I'm just not sure how they're gonna do it given than Federer is unstoppable on grass.

Then in the women's singles, Maria Sharapova bowed out of the grand slam tournament by day 4, and Ana Ivanovic by day 5. Could Jelena Jankovic step up so we won't see a Williams vs. Williams in the finals?

All I can say is: it's a blood bath in Wimbledon this year.

Maria Sharapova, Wimbledon Round 2
Lethal Combination

Manny Pacquiao once again brings glory to the Philippines by knocking David Diaz out after 02:24 in Round 9. Another blood bath.

Lethal Combination
Diaz Pacquiao Boxing
Originally uploaded by shoecrazy_24

2008-06-28

"You apologize too much..."

Imagine watching "Sin City" without knowing that it's based on a graphic novel so you're expecting that the characters, action scenes, etc. will be somehow closer to reality, then suddenly you saw this Yellow Bastard and you said 'WTF?!'. Well, that's how my watching Wanted last night turned out.

A few comments first on the cast:
1) James McAvoy - He still looks like a loser to me even when he's supposed to be a kick-ass assassin already
2) Angelina Jolie - I guess I could never complain. Just look at this:

Anj & her tats
3) Morgan Freeman - He was ok in the first part, portraying an old leader full of wisdom. Near the end, however, I felt horrified when he was giving out papers to his team like a teacher handing out results of an exam to his students and finally giving a persuasive speech to join him in his quest for world domination. yuck.

Then the plot:
Had I known beforehand that this was based on a comic series, I would have accepted the plot as it is. Even if I haven't read the comics, I would have thought that this could be how the story was created, so I'll just leave it be and watch the whole thing with delight and amazement. However, I was completely clueless, so I kept on thinking 'WTF?!' when I encountered these scenes:

  • a magical loom that weaves and tells the assassins who's gonna be their next target

  • Wesley Gibson gaining entrance to the textile factory with the help of rats

  • the idea of 'curving the bullet' - I was awed and even thought 'could that be possible?' - but then I saw how Fox killed her colleauges and eventually herself when she CIRCLED the bullet - argh, wtf?!

  • Morgan Freeman giving that one speech that binds us all - one of my friends even said 'nababaduyan nako!'. haha
And then the ending credits said it was based on a comic series... WTF?! Ahhh, kaya pala.

Lesson learned: Do not be fooled by trailers. At least ask around what the movie could be all about so you'll set the right expectations.

2008-06-24

TBA - Team Building Ano ba yan

Was it the just the weather, the venue, or both? I don't know, but I think my groupmates will agree with me on this: our TBA sucked. hehe.

It rained all throughout our team-building activity, with the storm showing off its peak strength in the evening. We looked like residents of Caliraya, Laguna stranded in a refugee camp, only the camp is more cozy because we're staying at a resort; and instead of queueing for relief goods and worrying about the properties we left behind, we were all busy watching movies, singing videoke, playing cards, and the all-time favorite 'Island Question.'
L-R, T-B: (1) Heading south (2) Since it's raining outside, we decided to pass messages, which is fun (3) And we watched the puddle of water on the floor get bigger, which is cool (4) Everyone's having a blast in our TBA (5) On the way to our sleeping quarters to have more fun (6) The venue is just perfect for our TBA

2008-06-18

Blood Pressure

Last week me and my groupmates were talking about blood pressure and athletes. I can't remember how the topic came about, but I do remember watching an episode from House where, well, House mentioned that athletes generally have low blood pressure. My PM agreed with me, but one of my groupmates argued differently. He said that athletes should have high blood pressure since their hearts pump blood with more force than that of non-athletes. What they have lower than normal is the number of heartbeats per minute - and maybe this is what I meant by 'low'.

Anyway, since I'm not a medicine student, I decided to google the issue and, well, just post it here. hehe. The search words "athletes" and "blood pressure" got me quite confused because the results gave me links that point to some articles stating that athletes have low b.p., and some that say otherwise. I didn't click on all the links at the first page, though. What seemed to be a reliable source to me was if the url somehow has the words 'health' or 'heart' or 'medicine', etc. - and that made me click on the link and read the article.

Finally, here's how I got good, concise articles from google: "do athletes tend to have low blood pressure?"... Nice, isn't it? Just like asking someone (and hey, google's the best search engine there is, right? So my idiotic search strings should be no problem for it). Sorry, I'm not good in doing more advanced searches. Nevertheless, Optimal Heart Health has this article that says:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than other people. It is also the case for many people who eat well and maintain a healthy weight.

I also stumbled upon this by the Mayo Clinic:

Athletes and people who exercise regularly tend to have lower blood pressure than do people who aren't as fit. So, in general, do nonsmokers and people who eat well and maintain a normal weight.

See? I was right, and House too! hehe.

Which reminds me, we're about to undergo the APE (Annual Physical Exam) this June. I hope I don't faint again after having a test tube-full of my blood sucked out of me. My best guess why I always faint after such seemingly simple medical procedure is that since I normally have low b.p., having a considerable amount of blood taken out of my body will cause my brain not to receive an adequate supply of blood and hence, dizziness or fainting.

I remember last year's APE: after the needle got out of my left arm's skin, I dashed from the clinic back to my desk (with a lame excuse that I have to get something) and remained seated until my lightheadedness was gone. haha! What a loser. The clinic is just a few meters walk from my desk, so dear fainting didn't get a chance to embarass me in front of many co-workers lined up in the clinic. Oh, but this time, they said they're going to conduct the APE in our company's annex office - which is located in the other building!

Whuuutt?!? Hmmm, ano kayang pwedeng technique ngayon?

2008-06-11

2nd long weekend is coming! Aaahhhh!!!

The shout doesn't mean excitement... It means horror! Yes, I look at the coming weekend with a feeling of dread because there's still no plan about any sort of gimik chuvaness. None. Nil. Zero. Empty... And it's still summer! I've been monitoring the weather since the first summer storms hit Manila and I don't believe summer will be cut that short - which means bitin kasi ako. hehe.

Hah, blame it all on me. I could have already gone outing the past looong weekend had I not felt all antisocial about being with people that I don't know on a summer vacation. The heck if they think their friend's friend is a lunatic loner. I really am not that talkative or friendly with others whom I've just met (to quote a local commercial: "I'm glad we've met!". hahahaha). I digress.

So here I am wondering what picture perfect thing to do over the weekend. I asked my colleagues in the office while 'chatting', and one of them replied with these (as far as I can remember):
Right. O ano, taralets bagets?

2008-06-09

Blog post imported from Multiply

I'm moving this blog entry I posted in my Multiply site because I wanted all my blog entries to be here. I'm planning on making the site mirror my other sites so I don't have to repeat whatever updates I make. In short, my mild OCD strikes again. hehe
-------------------------------------------------
Originally posted on 2008-04-28, 10:04 PM

New Clamshell?

My phone is in comatose since yesterday. I just removed the battery, blew out some dust, and I can't turn it on again. Dang. I went to some free cellphone check-up store, and the techie's diagnosis was the battery. It simply died out. It's been in coma since then because all the Motorola concept stores I've been to (Megamall & R. Galleria) doesn't have any w3i battery in stock. I'll try my luck in Eastwood tomorrow. Now my SIM's temporarily squatting in my mom's cellphone.

I've been thinking: should I just buy a class A (you know) battery, sell my w3i, and use the money to buy a Sony Ericsson w380i (Hmmm, sounds like just adding an '80' to 'w3i') ? Or settle for buying the original worth Php1.3k-1.5k, and live happily with my phone ever after?

No more blog entries here. You may visit this instead. Thanks!

Cross-posted from my multiply site:

Hi all,

You may read my blog entries here. I've mustered enough courage to revive my blogger account for no meaningful reasons at all... Well, for fun at least. Since this is one of those many times in my life where I feel I'm going nowhere, might as well type out my thoughts again online. Hope you'll appreciate it and, uh, link your blog to mine afterwards. hehe

Regards,

2008-06-07

Misantrophy? Or just plain unbalanced?

So it's the housewarming jaunt for me this first 3-day weekend of June. I decided to forgo the bash in Zambales and the Pagudpud outing with my college batchmates. Whuuut?! Although it doesn't sound like me at all (I haven't passed on a single invite since post-college), they both share a common reason why I begrudgingly indulged myself to bask under the nice, summer sun: I am becoming more and more antisocial - or so I think. Maybe I'm just not into meeting new acquaintances (note the 's', obviously it's more than one, and it's not just two either) and staying with them for more than a day to enjoy the beach together and get the acquaintance meter up to the friendly-friends level (I miss The Sims). Pathetic, eh?

There's actually a justification why anyone (by this I mean any introvert, hehe) would make a decision similar to mine, I think. Maybe somehow they'll agree with me on this. First fact: The first invite, 'the bash', originally included less than 10 of my officemates from other groups. They're already acquaintances and somehow we've already established this nod-or-smile-whenever-we-pass-by-each-other kind of relationship. So I think it's okay to join the group. The invite was sent via e-mail weeks before the trip and it didn't get much replies (either the invitees replied to the sender only, or talked to him directly). A few days before the trip, I confirmed if it's still a go because I and one groupmate would like to come. The answer's yes but, the participants have changed. There were now a total of 17, and it now involves family and college friends we barely knew. I'm so not used 'anymore' to large packed outings...

Which reminds me of my last Palawan getaway with my college friends last February (that will lead to the second fact, and the second invite). Of all the outings we've had, that was the first time there were more than one invitee who's not our batchmate. There were officemates, a sister and her boyfriend, and a boyfriend and his friend. I won't digress to expound on our 5-day adventure, just check this out...

snorkeling
L-R: Ley, Jaq, Me, Eric

The end result is that for me, it was okay except for the part where we couldn't do something as one whole group. Example: Breakfast - we don't wake up all at the same time (all 20 peeps? go figure); Diving - we were halved, first half went snorkeling (including me), second half went scuba diving (aawwww); Dinner - some wanted to eat here, some wanted to eat there; Drinking session - some bogged down early, some don't. Nevertheless, I'm grateful I got in a group where my 2 closest mates and her sis w/ bf are the coolest, so I still enjoyed the whole shebang.

On to the second fact and invite: to revisit Pagudpud with good ol' college batchmates. Frustratingly, there were more newcomers than the last trip. Enough said, I passed. So I figured, maybe the kind of vacation that will fit me is this: with only 3 to 4 friends to bond with and enjoy the summer with. That way, we get to do whatever we want to do "together" and "all the time". We can stay in one room, wake up at the same time, eat breakfast together, get drunk together, play something together, etc. In other words, there'll be no factions, no trying to figure out where the other group might be, no hurrying up coz the other groups are already somewhere else and we're way behind, no whatever else subgroups of a group tend to do in a supposed to be fun and memorable experience that is a summer vacation.

Oh well, I'm glad I get to bond more with my groupmates in their pad: Stolich and Sochu are the best (they're not persons, for those who don't know them, hehe).

2008-06-02

Arise, Lazarus!

This is an attempt to revive my blog, or my blogging activity so to speak. Hmm let's see... So the last post was way back in June 2006, and what a post that was - very, very meaningless. hehe. Oh and I remember last time this blog didn't look as neat as this. I left it looking completely horrible from the numerous edits and saves I did while tinkering with html and css. I figured that since I'm an engineer (whose main job right now is programming), I would easily learn the language (ya right, just as how I 'easily' learned OOP in e in, well, uhhh, a little over two years? hehe). So after a few days of forcing my brain to be creative and trying to come up with a theme that'll look nice (to me, at the very least), I gave up and abandoned the whole stuff. tsk tsk. What a complete waste of time feeling like I'm some kind of an artistic genius.

The 3-day weekends are near, and I still haven't got any plans. Well, there were plans but I don't know which one to execute. There's a summer outing (yep, it's still summer! It hasn't rained a tad bit this weekend) with my college kada, and another one for my office batchmate's birthday bash. Then my closest colleagues are planning to undo the damage done when we didn't come to their pad's housewarming. So which is which? It'll depend on the weather's - and my - mood, I guess.