…On Recent Events: Personal and on the Papers…

 

 I  had a holiday blog going. It's just that I can't seem to find where I saved it. This was supposed to be the third part of a three-part blog, but since I can' see the first, why bother posting the poorly written second? Anyway, this is just to cure my itch to blog.

 

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Clubbin at the Golf Club: Thoughts on the Dec 26 Golf Brawl

 

Golf is supposed to be the most boring and least physically demanding sport outside chess. You can’t get hurt by another player unless you’re so damn cursed that you accidentally get hit by a ball.

The Dela Paz vs Pagdanganan case over the holiday season was just another example of “you don’t cross the line, or else”. I don’t know the whole story. But I can empathize more with the Dela Paz family than the politician’s. See, I can’t say the Dela Paz family is a poor family threatened by the rich, because for one, they’re hanging out in a golf course, demmit. Look, a lot of people said before that Uncle Jun is such a hypocrite in saying he’s a mere “Probinsyanong Intsik” when he has a good house, expensive cars, and has a membership in Wack-Wack. He said that because he is that. He worked his ass off to get to were he was at that point. Now, Dela Paz may have been the same. It doesn’t matter to me though, because as far as I’m concerned, it’s a matter of politician vs. a Filipino citizen/family. You can’t tell me that Dela Paz was the one who silenced the whole crew to shut up about the incident. If you have 6 bodyguards wherever you go on a normal day (to his credit, Uncle Jun’s bodyguards were issued by the Senate, and it was not by choice. Those guards were cool. Dami nga lang nila. They’re no longer “securing” Uncle Jun now though), you’re a person too full of yourself and is asking for trouble at just about everywhere you go.

 

Bambi/Bambee, the Dela Paz daughter, used a powerful tool in the internet such that their case might not be lost in anonymity. It was a great idea, and had the right intentions, but in the end, I thought it was all for naught as the two conflicting parties decided on a settlement. I have not read the daughter’s blog yet, and I don’t know if she’s fine with the arranged settlement, but it’s just sad that it was never proven in court that one of the parties was at fault. Parang quits quits na lang, pareho na lang may kasalanan. Labo.

 

I’m thinking, they probably decided to just have the settlement so that the whole thing would be over with, and at least they get something out of it. Great idea, really, because with people like those going against you, courts and legal action will only take forever. Ask Uncle Jun. But then again, that’s why Uncle Jun didn’t decide to shut up even after bribe offers. You let them get away with something, somebody else is going to suffer their arrogance. A rippling effect. Or a butterfly effect, as Angela Petrelli calls it.

 

Congratulations on your return to peaceful anonymity. Hopefully, those at fault would just roll over and die.

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PBA Prediction

 

I’m excited over the PBA. I haven’t been this excited since the Alaska-Ginebra rivalry, or the last couple of seasons of the Michael Jordan of my life during the 90’s, Alvin Patrimonio. No, not because of their greatness, but rather, during that time of my life, when you ask kids who their favorite player is in the NBA, they’d most likely say, Michael Jordan, because everybody knew him. For a 90’s kid like me, the first player that comes to my mind when asked about the PBA is Alvin Patrimonio.

 

Now, this year’s final 4 teams are San Miguel vs Talk N‘ Text, and Sta Lucia vs Alaska. What makes this year exciting for me is the fact that there’s only one remaining SMC team. When before, SMC seems to have been dominating the whole of PBA due to their many teams, this year, there remained only one, as all SMC teams fought to get past the wild card stage. When before SMC teams look like all star teams in themselves, today, teams like Talk N’ Text and Alaska are parading a marquee of stars themselves. This semis is really difficult to call, as all teams are legit finals contenders. But there can be only one:

 

TNT vs SMB: In Ainj’s offthebench.multiply.com account (where us basketball freaks share thoughts), I predicted this series to go 4-1 in favor of TNT. I said I see it as TNT dominating one (game one), SMB stealing one (game two), TNT recovering from another (game three), and a couple of close TNT wins. Watching the games, I would like to think SMB’s going to win another one, but just so the Nostrodamus in me would rejoice, I hope TNT takes it in 5.

 

ALA vs SLR: Sta Lucia has always been a great all-Filipino team. Kelly Williams was a break from their tradition of taking pure Filipinos only in their lineup, but that wasn’t a bad idea (what was bad was the over-hyped Alex Cabagnot) as it gave them a solid centerpiece in their franchise. Alaska is a team that has a winning tradition and a Jerry Sloan-type of coach, as they’re the only team in the league that every basketball-aware Filipino knows who the coach is. Alaska is a solid team this season, and their bench players can start for any other team. It’s such a joy to watch this series that I’m willing to call it either way. But my bias is Alaska, because I want to see Harvey Carey (TNT) and Reynel Hugnatan hustle each other out in every play.

 

Any team playing in the semis right now deserves to be Champion. They’re all good teams, and if they win, they won against a really solid team. Hopefully, the PBA will only get better.

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Benjamin Button's Magic

 

I’m a sleepy-head. I fall asleep in class, I fall asleep in work, heck, I even fell asleep standing up while attending a Simbang Gabi. I fell asleep watching Iskul Bukol, and a couple other movies, one of them was actually good.

 

Then comes Benjamin Button. I wasn’t excited about it. But I was (pardon the pun) curious about it. So Che and I watched it. And I loved it. I was so drawn into the movie that I didn’t realize how long it was. It had dragging scenes where I should’ve fell asleep, but I didn’t. I thought it was interesting from start to finish. By the way, we watched the movie at 10:30PM in Glorietta. We went out of the moviehouse at 1:30AM. It was that long and I didn’t fall asleep. Even I amazed me.

 

Let lightning hit me if I was lying. Hey, it could happen. One guy was hit “seven times”.

 

I was looking for interesting quotes in the movie, because I’d love to share it, but there wasn’t much. Though I think one scene/line would best describe the movie for me. It was said by the old lady who taught Benjamin how to play the piano: “We’re all meant to lose someone, Benjamin. That’s how we learn how important they are to us”.

 

For a guy growing young, that was an early lesson in life.

 

On a related note, I was listening to the morning show in Magic and Mo pointed out some similarities in Forrest Gump and Benjamin Button. It made sense while he was pleading his case, and it made a lot more sense when he let the listeners in on the audio clip of the YouTube video. Try to catch it yourself. Look for The Curious Case of Forrest Gump in YouTube to see for yourself.

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Voltaire, the Floss Addict

 

Went to Gateway last Saturday to just hang out. By the end of the night, Issa had to email something while Che and I got her glasses. So while waiting for Issa, Che and I decided to go to Bread Talk because the smell of the bread was just knocking on our noses. So we went there, and I wanted to see which was most visually appealing. Che got the “new” bread, as I heard in the morning show (yes, I listen to it everyday. Except when Mo’s not around. When before it was fine by me, lately, I’ve realized that when there’s no asshole bashing the gay guy and the callers, the show’s kinda boring.) called “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon.” I tell you, the bacon is actually hidden beneath the rock-solid bread. It’s not good. You get to break your teeth before you chow on some bacon. I was torn in choosing the Pizza Bread and the seemingly delish-looking “Floss”. Beckham and Cheese was a close third. I decided to go for the Floss thing and ate it in the car.

 

And so it began. My Floss addiction.

 

I couldn’t have enough of it, and was craving for it since I swallowed the last bite of it.

 

I finally got my dose yesterday. I got to taste them all, the Floss, the Cheese Floss, the Fire Floss, and the Hot Chic. And today, since I got to drop by Megamall, I had to get them again.

 

Maaga ako mamumulubi nito.

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And now to watch Obama's oath taking...