Just because it's so good

Another serving of Damien Rice and Lisa Hannigan:



And another over here too

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Just caught the Aussie Grand Prix on Star Sports a while ago.. Between Michael Schumacher crashing to the wall and Jenson Button's engine blowing off (with flames and all) at the very last turn of the very last lap of the race and stopping literally about five meters from the finish line, that was a really entertaining race. Heh. (Podium? 1. Fernando Alonso, Renault; 2. Kimi Raikonnen, McLaren-Mercedes; 3. Ralph Schumacher, Toyota)

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It's April! It's Summer! Ang iniiiiit!

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edited to add:

Just caught Ice Age 2 earlier this evening. It was a funny movie, especially when the acorn dude is on the screen. Plus that mini-sloth tribe was hilarious as hell too! :-)))

There also seemed to be alot of computer-animated movies coming up... Most of them looked like they were too kiddy though...

Natalie Portman, You Own Me Now.

It's already the middle of March and I still haven't posted anything here...

So here I go.

My brother left for the US (to Atlanta) about two and a half weeks ago for a project he's been assigned to at work. He'll be staying there for atleast three months. Ano kaya ang magandang hingiing pasalubong?

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My favorite show of all time - The Amazing Race - is back with a new season... Woohoo! And it's back to the good, regular format of teams-of-two-racingaroundtheworld! (Good thing they ditched that completely sucky "Family Edition" racearoundtheUSandnearbycountries shit)

By the way, AXN just bought the rights to produce an Asian version of the Amazing Race. I'd join this, but I don't think I can take a month off from work... tsk tsk...

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Finally got to buy the Up Dharma Down cd... Haven't listened to it yet though... I'll try to post my thoughts later...

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Hostel!!!

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I scored two tickets for last night's advance screening of V for Vendetta. The movie was AMAZING. It's a really really really good movie (a timely one too) that I highly recommend to anyone. So watch it!

I shall die here. Every last inch of me shall perish. Except one.

An inch. It's small and it's fragile and it's the only thing in the world worth having. We must never lose it, or sell it, or give it away. We must never let them take it from us.

It's a really smart movie (I don't want to use "intellectual", because honestly, intellectual is such a blrergh word, you know?) that combines substance and style in an awesome way. It's a Vertigo movie is what it is. I could go on and on about how much I loved this movie, so I better stop now.

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F1 season is back again! Great start of the season with the Bahrain Grand Prix too, with Fernando Alonso overtaking Michael Schumacher on his way out of the pitstop, at the most perfect time in the race! Kimi Raikonnen took third place after starting the race at the bottom of the pack after sufferring suspension failure during qualifying (again). Still, good race...

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Last March 3-4, we at the office had our first teambuilding activity of the year (hope there's many more to come.) We had it at this resort at Balai, Indang, Cavite just a few kilometers off of Tagaytay. The place we rented was really nice, had very nice houses and rooms, good food, weather was great, it was a great weekend over-all... Except for one hilariously embarrassing thing that I did...

We were assigned our rooms and I was supposed to room with my manager, my team leader, and a teammate of mine. So we're four in the room right? Well, the short story is that I was the only one who actually got to sleep in the room because I fell asleep before everyone else and locked the door. Accidentally (y'all have to believe me on this). My three roommates (yep, including the manager) ended up sleeping in the sofas outside... So yeah... a little awkward seeing them the next few days...

Hate the Player, Hate the Game.

It's easy, no instructions necessary...

In a voluntary gesture of fair play, De La Salle University is surrendering last year's University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) men's senior basketball trophy and forfeiting its second place finish this season after confirming the ineligibility of a player who joined the varsity in 2003.

It's all over the sports news these past few days... Apparently, one of our Green Archers was admitted to La Salle under false pretenses, submitting fake papers to gain admission (whether he was alone in this action or was coerced or worse, backed up, is another matter.)

Uncovering the player's ineligibility came by accident, said La Salle representative to the UAAP Board Lito Tanjuatco. Tanjuatco said La Salle conducted its own investigation of students whose DECS certificates were hand-carried and found the player's papers to be spurious. The player is in his third year on the varsity team. "It is a painful admission," said Tanjuatco. "But the school has chosen to take the high moral ground on the issue."

Damn... Right now, all I hope for is that this really is a gesture of fairplay, and not a bad cover up of something filthier inside the system. Because that? Is just downright shameful. And wrong. I wouldn't want to find out that the institution where I learned my x,y,z's operates on such low levels of integrity (and extremely high levels of hypocrisy.)

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For the moment, I'm really enjoying Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism.

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Fernando Alonso wins this year's F1 Driver's Championship, while his team Renault wins the Constructor's Championship after they comfortably out-pounted McLaren Mercedes in the season's last race in China. McLaren could've still won the championship since Renault only held a two-point lead coming in to the China Grand Prix. However, McLaren has this knack for screwing up in the most inopportune time, and screw up they did. (Note: Being a McLaren fan myself, when I say they have a knack for screwing up, I do mean this in the most endearingly jaded way.)

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Almost a month now as a member of the "Employed" column. Enjoying it so far, although this enjoyment is not stopping me from plotting my career path using a hyperbolic formula.

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A Peak You Reach

Winners this weekend: Kim, Roger, Kimi... WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!

Belgian Kim Clijsters finally grabbed a Grand Slam title, after losing in her first four GS finals (to Jennifer Capriati(USA) at the French Open '01, then to Justine Henin-Hardenne(BEL) at the French Open '03, the US Open '03 and the Aussie Open '04.) She beat French veteran Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-1 in a match that lasted just 63 minutes (Mary's other Grand Slam final this year at the French Open lasted all of 61 minutes as she got walloped by Justine.)
^ Kim reacts after winning the match.

With the win, Kim finally gets rid of the title "The Best Player Never To Win A Grand Slam", at the same time taking home a whoppin $2.2 million in prize money (the biggest payday for an xx chromosome in sports history.) The original prize money for the winner was $1.1 million, but since Kim won the most matches(and points) at US Open series (a group of tournaments held before the US Open), she got a 100% bonus on her prize money.

A day later, Roger Federer reaffirmed his status as the best tennis player in the world (and closes in on "The Best Tennis Player Ever" title) by beating 35-year old Andre Agassi in four sets, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(7-1), 6-1. Even Agassi, who in his career has squared-off with such legends as Pete Sampras, John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl, was left in awe. Roger went home with $1.1 million prize money (He finished just fourth at the US Open series after playing in only one tournament before the US Open.) The 24 year-old Swiss has now won 6 grand slam titles in a span of three years.

Both players also won a 2006 Lexus GS 430 sedan. Not bad for two weeks work, donchathink?

In the other events, twins Bob and Mike Bryan(USA) won the Men's double's title by beating top-seeds Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Swede Jonas Bjorkman. This is the Bryans' first Grand Slam title of the year after losing the finals of the Aussie and French Opens, and Wimbledon.

Lisa Raymond(USA) and Samantha Stosur(AUS) won the women's doubles while my girlfriend Daniela Hantuchova won the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi(IND). Mahesh has now won 9 grand slam titles (all in doubles) while Daniela has now won all four Mixed Doubles Grand Slam (She won Wimbledon with Leos Friedl in 2001, the Aussie Open in 2002 with kevin Ullyet, and the French Open this year with Fabrice Santoro. Daniela also won the Hopman Cup for Slovakia with Dominik Hrbaty earlier this year) Woohoo! Now go win them singles titles Daniela.

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Kimi Raikonnen won his sixth Grand Prix this season in the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, in an incident-filled race. I wasn't able to watch any part of the race, but from what I read, McLaren for the nth time, loses their chance to grab a 1-2 win as Juan Pablo Montoya crashed out on the latter part of the race while at the No. 2 position. This allowed Driver's Championsip leader Fernando Alonso to move up one spot, and maintain his lead over Kimi by 25 points, with just three races more to go. More heartbreaking was the fact that McLaren could've grabbed the lead from Renault had Montoya finished second. Instead, Renault still leads McLaren by 6 points for the Constructor's championship. Jenson Button of BAR-Honda finished third in the race.

Take Your Fast Car and Keep on Driving

Raikkonen and Schumacher - swap deal?

This morning's Bild newspaper in Germany claims a pre-contract agreement has been signed which will see Schumacher in a McLaren-Mercedes in 2007, with Raikkonen in a Ferrari.

You will die in seven days...

What?!?!??!?!?!?!???!! Wait, let me just gather my thoughts so that I'll know what I actually have to say about that news.

...........
.......
....
..

Nope, nothing... my head's still numb. The report did end by saying that even Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug himself has said that it is "rather impossible" for Schumacher to leave Ferrari.

In this weekend's F1 action in the Istanbul Grand Prix, McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen grabbed his fifth title of the season by dominating the race, taking the lead right from the start and holding on to it until the checkered flag. Raikkonen also made history by winning the inaugural F1 race in Istanbul, Turkey. Championship Race leader Fernando Alonso took second place, taking advantage of crucial mistakes by Kimi's McLaren teammate Juan Pablo Montoya. Montoya, who made a wide turn a couple of laps near the end of the race to give Alonso enough space to overtake, settled for third place. So instead of a 1-2 finish by McLaren, it's another McLaren-Renault-McLaren at the podium (Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella finished fourth).

Alonso maintains a 24-point lead over Raikkonen with McLaren narrowing Renault's lead in the Constructors Championships to just 9 points.


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I had my first interview with my future employer* awhile ago, I'm hoping it won't be my last. (Or I'm hoping it's my last and I get hired immediately after, but that's asking for too much, hehe)

* speaking in hindsight :)

Tennis Spittings, straight from Stade Roland Garros

Another week, another clay title for Rafael Nadal(ESP)... the just-recently-turned 19 year-old Spaniard claims his first ever Grand Slam title by winning the 2005 French Open. He beat the best player in the world, Roger Federer(SUI), in the semifinals (with some help from Federer who was playing sloppy tennis, instead of his trademark fluid, out-of-this-world, sickeningly amazing brand of tennis) and then the un-doped Mariano Puerta(ARG) in the finals.

23 year-old Justine Henin-Hardenne(BEL) also grabs the fourth Grand Slam title of her career after she beat 30 year-old veteran Mary Pierce(FRA) with an embarrassing score of 6-1, 6-1... Mary was gunning for her third Grand Slam title after winning the Australian Open in 1995 and the French Open in 2000. Justine earlier demolished Maria Sharapova(RUS) in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-2... With the win, Justine seals her sweet comeback from a debilitating "mystery" blood virus and knee injury that kept her off the tennis tour for about seven months.

Daniela Hantuchova(SVK) won the Mixed Doubles title with Fabrice Santoro(FRA).

Woohoo!!! Go Daniela! She lost in the third round of the Singles to Kim Clijsters(BEL) though...

Hoping for a better result in Wimbledon for my longtime girlfriend Daniela. (Walang aangal)

There's a new Ana in tennis, except this one looks like she'll be staying on the court longer than she will on Enrique Iglesia's bed. 17 year-old, 6-foot tall Ana Ivanovic(SCG)(that's Serbia and Montenegro, btw), another teenaged up-and-comer destined for greatness, also had a pretty good tournament. She beat hometown favorite and world number 3 Amelie Mauresmo(FRA), who incidentally is also Martina Hingis' favorite male tennis player. Oops... Ana eventually succumbed to nerves and lost to Nadia Petrova(RUS) in the quarters 6-2, 6-2.

Don't worry my new favorite young sex kitten tennis player, you'll win one of these Grand Slams soon enough.

Virginia Ruano Pascual(ESP) and Paola Suarez(ARG) won their (count 'em) fourth Roland Garros title together after beating Cara Black(ZIM) and Liezl Huber(SAF) in the Women's Doubles final. They have partnered to win 8 Grand Slams in all, so far. Max Mirnyi(BLR) and Jonas Bjorkman(SWE) took home the Men's Doubles title after beating the Bryan Twins Mike and Bob(USA) in the final. Bjorkman has now won all four Grand Slam Men's Doubles titles.

Back to Federer, he remains at the top of the ranking after the French Open. Nadal goes up two places to number 3, while losing finalist Puerta jumps 26 spots to a career-high ranking of 11. Justine Henin-Hardenne enters the top 10 for the first time since her injury/illness break at number 7. Mary returns to the top 20 for the first time in some years (after falling out of the top 100, also because of various injuries) as the 13th ranked player in the world.

Last year's Men's finalists Gaston Gaudio(ARG) and Guillermo Coria(ARG) both fall out of the top ten (12 and 14 repectively). They are replaced by Roland Garros semifinalist Nikolay Davidenko(RUS) who jumps from number 12 to number 7, and Joachim Johansson(SWE) who didn't even play in the French Open but got lucky anyway. Last year's French Open champ Anastasia Myskina(RUS), who lost in the first round, barely hangs in the top ten as she falls four places (from #6 to #10)

Wimbledon gets going two weeks from now with Roger Federer(SUI) and Maria Sharapova(RUS) as the defending champs... Hope my favorite players win.

On a slightly different topic:

Another Grand Prix, another good win for Renault's Fernando Alonso in the European GP at the Nurburgring in Germany. He leads the Driver's Championship table, while Renault dominates the Constructor's Championships, with no Michael Schumacher nor Ferrari in sight. Since this happened last week, I am now less upset of the fact that Kimi Räikönen's car totally gave way (tire blew, suspension failure, etc. etc.) 3 miles from the finish line. 3 miles! 3 fucking miles! and he was leading the whole way! Right from the first turn of the race, he was leading the whole fucking way! He was successfully holding off Alonso for the top podium finish and 3 miles from from the finish line, his tire just fucking flies off! Boom. Gone. Kimi spins out to the gravel. Alonso goes on to take the win, while Kimi? DNF...

Now that I think of it, I still am upset.