Recommended Viewing/Listening:

I was scanning through www.youtube.com when I came across this video:

Damien Rice's Volcano

I say you view it. Because it's amazing.

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Yesterday, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared that the nation is under a State of Emergency, supposedly because there was a supposed coup attempt. Good on her for realizing that people don't want her in power. Excuse me while a vomit.

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I noticed that I forgot to keep my blog updated with some Aussie Open news. Well, the Aussie Open ended about a month ago (heh) so I'll just make this quick. Amelie Mauresmo won her first ever Grand Slam at the age of 26, Roger Federer won his 7th Grand Slam at the age of 24, the Bryan twins won the men's doubles, Zi Yan and Jie Zheng became the first Chinese players to ever win a Grand Slam after winning the women's doubles, and Martina Hingis capped of her successful comeback from competitive tennis by winning the mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi.

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Work related: Starting March 6, our team will be having 12:00 am - 8:30 am working hours. (I don't want to elaborate because I don't want to say something that I might not like saying after).

In another work-related news, checking my schedule for the next two months, looks like I'll be working on Holy Week (including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday). And that's bad because people don't usually work on those two days (at least here in the Philippines), they go on vacation. In Boracay. Or in Palawan. Or in Sagada. Because it's a holiday. Yet I won't get any additional pay for logging in 9 hours of work. On a holiday. Damn it.

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A couple of weeks ago, me and my officemates Mike, Jan, and Ben went to Eurostar (it's a carnival/amusement park). They only have around 7 rides there, but each one will definitely hit you hard. Parang Red Horse. My favorite was the Joker. Imagine riding a giant vertical centrifuge. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The best gifts are the gifts you get

The best gifts are the gits you get even when you're not celebrating anything.

Thursday Last Week:

I met up with some high school friends two Thursday's ago for a long overdue and much-delayed dinner out. We ate at A Venetto in Glorietta 3 and ordered more food than we could eat, which is usually the case whenever I eat at A Venetto (I always underestimate their huge serving/I always overestimate my appetite for pasta.) (I highly recommend their Oil and Garlic with Ham and Bacon in White Sauce, btw.) I haven't been seeing much of my high school friends as much as I want, so seeing them again after some time was really nice. High school friends are the best people to share a good laugh really (between the Walking Human Mirror Ball and the Salted Duck Egg-and-Potato jokes, what could be better?)

After dinner, we rode a cab home to Las Pinas (where we all live) and winded our night down at the kapihang bayan ng Las Pinas (take a guess), where we were able to extort money for a cup of coffee from SMART-employed Mel. We were more than happy to accept Mel's offer(?) to treat us since we know how generous Smart is with their Christmas bonuses (hint hint).

Friday Last Week:

The next night, I met up with my PEx tennis friends (Ron and his friend Trish, PJ and Anuck) in NSG to have dinner and to watch the Roger Federer-Nicolas Kiefer Aussie open semis match (we ate dinner, but we basically ignored the match coz we were too busy eating/talking. The Fed was gonna win in four sets anyways). The highlight of my night though was when PJ gave me his brand new copy of Jeff Buckley's first and only studio album Grace.

The back story: PJ is a big Jason Mraz fan, and so is Ron I guess, and they were talking about the Mraz concert that they both watched some days before (Mraz did two shows in Manila and PJ actually watched both, presumably so that he could write a compreshensive thesis of how Mraz's singing and performances in Manila changes from one night to another. Hehe.) Anywayz, they asked me if I liked Mraz too, and I said I think he's okay but I don't like him enough to watch his shows. And then I said If it was Damien Rice then I would definitely go watch, and if it was Jeff Buckley, then I would kill anyone who stops me from watching. So PJ asks me if I had a copy of Jeff Buckely's Grace, and I said no because it's so hard to find Jeff Buckley cd's anywhere here in Manila. Then suddenly he takes out the Grace CD he has in his bag that he got for a very looow price when he was in Singapore and said that I could have it since he already had the Grace Legacy Edition. Ofcourse there was a few seconds of me pretending like I was too shy to accept such a generous gift, but that only lasted a few seconds because there was no way in hell I was letting PJ change his mind.

I then proceeded to declare PJ "My favorite person in the world for the next five days."

This weekend:

I planned to talk about my weekend but the weekend is not yet over and this post already has too many words in it, so I'll just blog it next time... (I think I'll call my next entry Aaaaaaaaahhhhhh!)

An Idle Blog is the Fly's Playground

This blog has been idle for some time now...


I'll try updating this Game soon...


I'll be getting my yearbook tomorrow (at least I'll try if I don't get too busy again)


In the meantime,

Happy Birthday Candice and Patricia!

The World News, some very Local Music, and Aussie Tennis

I was at home working last Saturday morning when I picked up the newspaper and found a little disturbing something written on the paper's front page. It read:

World / A8 Court grants Angelina Jolie's request for her kids to use Brad Pitt's name

What the fuck?!? This??? This belongs to the World News section? Since when did the effects of Jolie and Pitt's bed-banging leave the Entertainment pages and become World News material? Is there nothing more relevant happening in our world for this to become the banner article of the World News section? Is there no more political crisis in the Middle East? Is there no more poverty in Africa? Is there no more terrorist threat in the world? Did the oil prices suddenly reach a standard flat-line rate? Do they mean to say that the surname (the very elegant-sounding Jolie-Pitt by the way) of the wonder couples' adopted kiddies is suddenly more pressing than the current world issues? What the fuck??


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Later that day, I stopped by Tower Records in Town Center where I spotted this album called Cafe Bossa. What got me excited was the fact that the album was by Sitti, who was a classmate of mine back in grade school. So I listened to her album and was really bowled over. She's got a really beautiful voice and her singing is just perfectly easy on the ears. No ear-splitting, high pitched screams or anything like that, just a real nice and calming jazz sound. I remember when our teachers would ask her to sing in class and she would sing the Mariah Carey songs young girls are expected to sing when their teachers ask them to sing in front of the class, and I just gotta say: I'm glad she matured nicely from those days. =)

Check out her official website.


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The finals of the Aussie Open '06 is just around the corner, with the men and women ready for their semifinal battle. The women features a less surprising but nonetheless intriguing line-up headed by #2 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, #3 Amelie Mauresmo of France, #4 Maria Sharapova of (duh) Russia, and #8 Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium who beat #1 Lindsay Davenport(USA) in the quarterfinal. Defending champion Serena Williams got her ass booted off by my girlfriend 17th seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia in the third round with the score of 6-1, 7-6(7-5)... That was a great, confidence-boosting win for Daniela who then lost to Maria in the fourth round 6-4, 6-4. After an impressive run, Swiss Miss Martina Hingis' comeback from a three-year injury "break" was brought to a halt by Kim in a tight quarterfinal match (Kim won 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.)

The Semifinals willl be Justine vs Maria and Kim vs Amelie. Davenport's defeat in the hands of Justine assures Kim Clijsters of getting the number 1 ranking next week no matter happens in her next matches.


The men's side features a more varied line-up composed of #1 Roger Federer of Swtizerland, #4 David Nalbandian of Argentina, #21 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany, and the surprise of the tournament, former junior world champion Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus. The 20 year-old Baghdatis defeated #2 seed Andy Roddick(USA) in the fourth round in an amazing display of powerful and precise hitting, and great backcourt defense. In the quarterfinals, Baghdatis did more damage by defeating #7 seed Ivan Ljubicic of Craoatia in five sets. He meets Nalbandian in the semis. It should be an interesting match as both players have a similar game of aggresive baseline plays and relentless defense. Plus the fact that David is one of only 4 players who were able to beat Federer last year (in five sets in the finals of the ATP Championships, the last pro match of the season). Federer meanwhile will try to tame both the wily German Kiefer and his strangely erratic game. Federer started the Aussie Open in devastating form by not losing a set in his first three matches. However, he was tested by the extremely talented German Tommy Haas in the fourth round in a great match that saw Federer get pushed around and lose the third and fourth sets before recovering in a five-set win. He then continued to struggle in the quarters against Russian 5th seed Nikolay Davydenko, losing the second set before winning both the 3rd and 4th sets in a tie-breaker. It will be interesting to see how The Fed Express will play versus Kiefer's fiesty arrogance.

Men's semis: Federer vs Kiefer, Nalbandian vs Baghdatis

Friday, the 13th

This blog is a year old today.

I feel like I should say something more, but I'm running on empty right now.

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Work has been good so far, if a little uncertain. Although I think that's just natural when it comes to new things. The first few steps are always taken with some tentativeness, until you get the hang of it and you start taking bigger steps, in different directions.

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Self-awareness is a good trait to have. Something that really annoys me a lot is when I see people who think too highly of themselves. Masyadong malaki ang bilib sa sarili to put it simply. The way I see it, great accomplishments (if they were great at all) are negated by high-and-mighty "I deserve your praise" attitude. Heroes are not supposed to be self-serving, after all.

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I'm excited to go back to Boracay this summer. I'm also hearing my brother making plans of going to Cagayan de Oro a few weeks from now (and with a very wallet-friendly budget too!)

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Aussie Open 2006, tennis season's first Grand Slam starts on Monday! After being forced to retire with injuries three years ago, Martina Hingis(SUI) will be playing in her first Grand Slam tournament as a wildcard entry (she has no ranking because of her three year absence). Defending men's singles champ Marat Safin (RUS) is not playing this year because of a knee injury while defending women's champ Serena Williams is running on very poor form because of injuries and a general drop in her fitness. Top seeds are Roger Federer (SUI) who will try to do better after losing to Safin in last year's classic semifinal match and 29-year old Lindsay Davenport(USA) who lost to Serena in last year's final. I hope Daniela does well here too. =)

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Two bands that I'm really liking right now are Up Dharma Down (Alternative meets Trip-Hop meets Drum and Bass meets Soul meets great music) and Paramita (nice melodic songs and the vox has a real nice voice, sort of like Aia of Imago but a little huskier)

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For someone who's running on low fumes, I sure can type a lot...

I've been having some fucked up dreams lately...





I hate that.

2005, exit to the left

This has been a pretty good year. I think.

Between dropping, doing, finishing, and passing the thesis, meeting my idol Neil Gaiman, looking for a job, finding a job, graduating from college, starting this blog, lamely trying to attack the church, going to Boracay for the first time, being a tennis fan, and basically maintaining my ineptitude in writing, making music and playing tennis...

Yeah, this year was better than ok. (I hope you didn't notice how narcissistic this post was)

Happy New Year everybody!

Here's to hoping that 2006 > 2005

The Greatest Show in the World (not involving Annoying Celebrities, Maltreated Animals, and Grubby Politicians!)

The World Pyro Olympics

This show will kick major ass for sure, so haul your family and friends over to The Esplanade(located right in front the SM Mall of Asia, inside the Bay City Central Business Park, in the City of Pasay)!!!

If you haven't figured it out yet, it's a fireworks competition between 9 countries (not including the host country Philippines), and it'll go on for five nights from Dec 26 to Dec 30. So grab some popcorn, sit back and watch the sky over Manila Bay go boom.

Click on the link above (or here) for more details =)

Merry Christmas!

Maligayang Pasko at Maligo kayo sa Bagong Taon!

My parents left for Lucena late this morning to visit my Grandfather (my Mom's Father) who was in the hospital.

Just a few minutes ago I got a call from my Dad, and he had bad news to tell.

My Grandfather passed away earlier today.

All of us in the family fondly called him Itay. Our family holds our reunion once a year, on Holy Week every Black Saturday until Easter Sunday. The last time I saw Itay was in our last family reunion. Although he wasn't at top health back then, he was still all smiles and very much energetic. And even though he succumbed to various illnesses, I will always remember him as that energetic man who welcomed us every year as we visited his house in the middle of the ricefields.

I am writing this in honor of Itay.

You will be missed on this space.

Will calling me back next year work?

Bakit ba kung kelang di mo na pwedeng gustuhin yung dating gusto mo, bigla pa itong lalapit sayo?





Fuck naman the circumstances.



Wahahahahahaha

That Rant at the End of This Post

is brought to you by the Number 3, and 76, and the Letters G, R, E, E and D.

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My throat (or my tonsils or whatever it is at the back of my tounge/top of my throat) hurts. I woke up yesterday (while I was sleeping on the ride home) and it was just suddenly sore. Damn it.

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Anyone here a subscriber to Bayantel's SkyDSL? Is it good (in terms of quality of connection, technical and after-sales service, etc)? I'm looking to subscribe to a DSL service provider (the sooner the better). I've actually applied for a PLDT myDSL connection already, but it's taking them too freeking long to respond to me and I'm getting impatient so I'm looking for alternatives. Any suggestions?

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Last week, I had dinner with some college friends of mine at Fish and Co. in Greenbelt 3.

Saraaaap!

I ordered the baked salmon and it was really really tender and tasted really really good. I want to eat there again but the food is way expensive... So I did the next best thing and pimped the resto for all its fishy-seafoody goodness to my parents so that maybe, just maybe, they'll to treat me there one of these days for being an extra good boy. Hah.

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Tennis season is almost over, with only the WTA Year-End Championships (YEC) in Los Angeles left for the women and the ATP Masters Cup (AMC) in Shanghai and the Davis Cup Final for the men. The YEC and the AMC are essentially the season-ending tournament for the women's and men's tour (respectively) where only the top eight players for the whole 2005 season get to play.

The Davis Cup Final will be contested by East European underdogs Croatia and Slovakia. Croatia, led by Ivan Ljubicic and Mario Ancic, upset the heavily-favored US team that included Andy Roddick, Andre Agassi, and the top-ranked doubles team of Mike and Bob Bryan in the first round early this year. The Slovakian side meanwhile will be led by Dominik Hrbaty and Karol Beck. Slovakia beat last year's Davis Cup champs Spain, also in the first round early this year.

On the men's side, Swiss Roger Federer will lead the field as the top seed and is already assured of ending the year as the top ranked player for the second year in a row even if he doesn't win a match here. A quick summary of his year would read: He won 2 of the 4 Grand Slams this year, losing in the semifinals on the other two Slams. He also won 4 of the 9 ATP Masters Series tournaments this year (Masters Series tourneys are the next biggest tournaments after the Slams) plus some smaller tournaments for 11 tournament wins in all and has only lost a whoping three out of the 70+ matches he played this year (lost to Marat Safin(RUS) at the Aussie Open semis, to Rafael Nadal(ESP) at the French Open semis, and to Richard Gasquet(FRA) at the Monte Carlo Masters quarters). All this despite having to take a break for about a month twice for an injured ankle. Talk about dominance... Enough about Federer.

The women's season ender seems to be more interesting as we have American Lindsay Davenport and Belgian Kim Clijsters fighting for the prestige of becoming the year-end No. 1 player. Lindsay has had a great year, being the runner-up at the Aussie Open (losing to Serena Williams) and Wimbledon (losing to Venus Williams) this year, and taking home 6 titles for herself. I would have to say though that Kim had the more successful year, after missing almost the whole of the 2004 season because of a career-threatening wrist injury and falling down to the No. 130's in the rankings last March, Kim quickly got back to the swing of things winning back to back Tier-1 titles (Tier-1 tournaments are the WTA's version of the ATP's Masters Series) then going on to win her very first Grand Slam title at the US Open this year. Kim has won a total of 9 titles so far this year, and a win at the YEC will seal her comeback year with the No. 1 ranking in her hands.

Maria Sharapova also briefly held the top ranking this year but several injuries have stopped her from challenging Kim and Lindsay for the top ranking and without any Grand Slam trophy to show for this year, will most likely finish at No. 3. The other three Grand Slam champs of the year, Aussie Open Champ Serena, French Open Champ Justine Henin-Hardenne, and Wimbledon Champ Venus will not be participating in the YEC because of injuries. That's just too bad because it would have been really interesting to see these 6 players play head-to-head.


And did I mention the winners for the WTA Championships and the ATP Masters Cup take home a cool $1,000,000 in prize money???

Damn. If only I was taller, moved faster, had better hand-eye coordination, was more focused, is generally in better physical condition, and had the natural talent, I would've dropped out of college and played tennis professionally until my bones broke and my ears dripped blood.

Much Has Been Said...

Bought the Bamboo album "Light Peace Love"

I have to admit it's a really good album... Not really a big fan of the band, but after hearing the whole album, I gotta say, yeah it's very impressive.

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Happy Halloween kids.

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I finally got to eat at Cibo last week. I always wanted to do that place but never got around to actually eating there. So last Sunday, we went over to my brother's house in Cainta where we had lunch, then later that night went to Gateway Mall in Araneta (site of my 7-hour Neil Gaiman Experience) because my parents have never been there and they wanted to check out the place. I treated my parents, my kuya and his wife (my sis was in Puerto Galera, where apparently, she got stung by a jellyfish) to celebrate (celebrate nga ba talaga ang tawag dun??? gagastos ka para sa kabusugan ng iba? not that I'm complaining, but....) my first paycheck. Anywayz, I highly recommend the Funghi Pizza, forgot what it's called but it's the pizza with mushrooms in it, and the La Foresta Pasta.

/end of plug

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Caught season 3 of 24 on AXN some days ago. That show is damn good.

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Pasira ng Umaga

talaga yang mga FX drivers na yan na may existential crisis...



Unsolicited Advice: Kung hindi mo alam ang dapat mong gawin sa buhay, magpakamatay ka na lang. Kawawa ang mundo sayo eh.

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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P7.50 Na Ang Minimum Pamasahe Ko, Officially

Last Wednesday we had our grad practice at school, and it was really great to see many of my friends and batchmates again after some time. It was nice to go back to La Salle again (last time I was there was for our MOTA defense, where things weren't exactly memorable for the right reasons. Heh)

Anywayz, alot of people probably saw the DLSU-FEU game, and even if you didn't see it, I'm sure you probably heard of the thing that happened shortly after the buzzer went off. Well, all I can say there is that ASSistant team manager got what he deserved for that stupid thing he did. I don't want to come across as someone who claims to stand on higher ground, but seriously, what he did was shameful and dragged the whole La Sallian community down on the dirt, making us look like we are a group of people who lacked integrity and respect for others. I don't know if I'm a good judge of character, but hell, that's my opinion on the matter.

Enough bout that shit. I wanna talk bout Saturday now.

Last Saturday was my College Graduation day. I can't really say I was all that excited since I had to wake up early to get to PICC (Philippine International Convention Center) by 7:30 a.m. but still, it's a nice, formal way to say goodbye to the great, good and bad times in La Salle so it really meant something to me.

Here are some pics (courtesy of Gelsen):

After the ceremony, My friends (Del, Joan, Gelsen and his gf) and I had lunch together at Italianni's because my mom gave me an Italianni's gift certificate. After that, we went our separate ways. Gelsen and his gf Rina went to a bazaar, I went to meet up with my family (for another eating session haha) while Del and Joan went to the movies... (hmmm, ano kaya pinanood nila? hehehe) Anywayz, as I said, later in the day I met up with my family and some of our close family friends and we had dinner at Gerry's Grill. Ang sarap ng Crispy Pata! sheeet... I know it's bad for the health but what the hey... Masarap eh!

I'll try to upload some pics here (I don't have my own camera so I'm counting on my camera-owning friends to send some pics over to me so I can post them here... Damn)

So now, I'm officially a graduate, and I've been employed for a little over two weeks already (wahooooo lapit na payday! payday na! wooohoooo)

List of things I want to buy on my first paycheck:

1. The rest of Neil Gaiman's The Sandman series that I still don't have, and Neil's new book Anansi Boys.
2. CD's!!! (hindi blank cd's ha, yung may lamang kanta naman)
3. Digicam!
4. Music Player!!! (Ipod Nano? Zen Vision M? something else?)
5. TV for my room!
6. The Amazing Race Season 1 DVD!!!
7. A new tennis racket! (Kahit hindi na ko nakakapag-tennis lately haha)
8. A new jacket!
9. Sapatos for office. The one I'm using right now is the same one I had since I started college hehe, kawawa na...
10. Flash disk!

Holy sheeeet... Mabubutas yata bulsa ko sa wishlist na yan ah... I should probably rethink it hehe (or, anyone of you, baka naman gusto nyong magdonate sa Alvin's Wishlist Fund? Anyone?)

Week One in the Rat Race

This was a pretty good week.

Hell yes it was...

Last Monday marked my first day on my first job. I arrived at the office (at the tenth floor of our building) a few minutes before 9, but I didn't get to meet my officemates until about an hour later (thanks to Mhia for getting me out of that frikkin cold conference room hehe. No, I didn't get trapped or anything like that...)

After that I was sent to the 34th floor so I could join my fellow trainees for some SQL training. The training lasted for four days, for about 8 hours a day and was basically a crash course of what we were taught in the DBAPDEV days of college plus some new tricks too. We had free snacks in the mornings and the afternoons so that really kept me well-fed and happy, which is never not good in my book.

Anywayz, since the training didn't finish until Thursday, it was only on Friday that I spent significant time at the 10th floor, which basically explains why most of my conversations with my officemates turned out like this:

Officemate: Ikaw yung new hire? Kelan ka nagstart?
Me: Yep, first day ko nung Monday
Officemate: Talaga? Eh bakit ngayon lang kita nakita?
Me: Nagtraining kasi ako from Monday to Thursday eh, kaya ngayon lang talaga ako napunta dito hehe...

So it was only on my fifth day of work that I actually met my officemates (and I don't think I've actually met all my teammates yet) and from what I was told, I'm gonna have the duty manager role (the same role Mhia has, or used to have as she said on her blog) and training for that won't be until October so I'll have the whole of next week doing, uhm... nothing in particular really. Hmmm... Maybe I should practice my "suck up to the boss" routine next week then. When I tell people that I probably won't be doing anything next week, they basically tell me (and I paraphrase): "Enjoy it while it lasts..."

In that case, I'm gonna stretch every damn second.

We ate lunch at PBComm Tower's food court, and I think they have better food outlets there than our own building's food court.

Highlight of the day however was definitely the dinner/s15 reunion with my college friends (s15 was our original block) at Teriyaki Boy and although not everybody was there since the dinner was just short notice, it was still hell fun ("Less sense, more fun" is one of our guiding principles. Haha)

Next Wednesday should be equally interesting since most of us will meet up again for grad practice, college recognition, and the baccalaureate mass, and on Saturday night some of us will meet up again in Dandan's house in Katipunan for some after-grad celebration (Our grad will be in Saturday afternoon.) So if your a friend of ours and you are reading this, consider this an invitation to come, just contact Dandan for detaile hehe (You wouldn't want to miss Dandan and Eliza's karaoke showdown would you?)


PS: Someone told me a very amusing story last Thursday. One of the most amusing ones I've heard all year, actually. It might be disturbing to some, but I gotta admit, there's humor in it you won't find in everyday-average jokes.

If I was more Socio-Politically Relevant...

I'd Look Like this:

Nice.

Now go and do yourself here and don't forget to show me -> hellgod_13@yahoo.com. (And if you get really bored, you can go do me there too... I mean, draw me... with the southpark thing... you can draw me there. Good)

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If your looking for good music to listen to, I'd recommend music by Badly Drawn Boy (Silent Sigh, A Peak You Reach and The Shining are some highly-recommended songs) and Death Cab for Cutie (The Sound of Settling, We Looked Like Giants and Transatlanticism) and Damien Rice (his whole O album is great) and Nick Drake. Really nice to listen to especially if your sitting in front of a computer, or a desk, or in a car, or a bus, or a jeep, or a plane plain plane (oh my fucking g, I can't spell a-i-r-p-l-a-n-e)

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.

Move out of the house, deadweight

Quarterfinal action in the US Open begins today, with top-seed Maria Sharapova facing fellow Russian 9th seed Nadia Petrova, and Belgian 4th seed Kim Clijsters facing No. 10 Venus Williams (fresh from beating lil sis Serena in the previous round). Tomorrow's matches will feature second seed Lindsay Davenport(USA) vs last year's US Open runner-up (6)Elena Dementieva of Russia, and No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo vs Mary Pierce in an all-French match up (after Mary defeated the French Open champ, No. 7 Justine Henin-Hardenne(BEL) in the previous round.)

The men's quarterfinal line-up has yet to be completed, with No. 1 Roger Federer of Switzerland facing German Nicolas Kiefer, No. 11 David Nalbandian(ARG) facing Italian veteran Davide Sanguinetti, Aussie No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt vs No. 15 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, and the unseeded match-up of Spaniard Fernando Verdasco and Jarkko Nieminen of Finland all playing their fourth round matches later today.

Alreay through to the quarterfinals are No. 6 Andre Agassi (def Belgian Xavier Malisse in five sets), unseeded American James Blake (who defeated the second-seeded teen prodigy Rafael Nadal of Spain in the third round and the 19th seed Spaniard Tommy Robredo in the fourth round), No.8 Guillermo Coria of Argentina (who beat Chilean Nicolas Massu in a 4-hour and 30 minute (the longest match of the tournament so far), heated, controversial match), and another unseeded American, Robby Ginepri (who beat seeded players Tommy Haas of Germany (No.29) and 19 year-old Frenchman Richard Gasquet(No.13) in the 3rd and fourth round respectively)

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Another great race this weekend at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza! It was again dominated by the top two teams of the season, McLaren-Mercedes and Renault. McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya(COL) won the race despite having some tire problems towards the end of the race. Renault got a two spots at the podium with Championship Race leader Fernando Alonso(ESP) and Giancarlo Fisichella(ITA) finishing 2 and 3. McLaren's Kimi Raikonnen(FIN) saw his challenge for the Driver's Championship title derailed by tire problems and just missed out on a top three finish.

With the results, McLaren narrows Renault's lead in the Team Championships by one point (Renualt still leads by 8) while Toyota is suddenly within striking distance of Ferrari's third place standing after Toyota's Jarno Trulli(ITA) and Ralf Schumacher(GER)'s strong performances (finishing 5th and 6th) and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher(GER) and Rubens Barrichello(BRA) both failing to get any points for this race.

Woohoo! Go Montoya!

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Just signed. I'll be starting work on the 19th. =)

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I dont know what came over my father, but last week, he bought 5 videoke cd's and he's been singing loads of reeeeeeealy old songs in front of the TV every night since. Is this his way of telling me "Move out of the house, deadweight."? (He's at it right now actually, with the mic on high volume.)

Oh no....no...noooo... Not freaking Barry Manilow!!!

Damn, I think I'm gonna need to buy ear plugs.

Do I see a pattern here?

Last Friday, I went to Navitaire's office in PhilamLife tower in Paseo de Roxas to discuss their job offer. Basically, the offer is pretty good... Associate Software Engineer, 6 months probationary status, good salary, good benefits... The only thing that bothered me was that I had to sign a 2-year bond with the company, and should I choose to leave them before two year's time, I would have to pay the company a somewhat sizeable amount of money, depending on the trainings I get from them.

I don't know bout you, but the thought of being tied down to the company for two years just makes me feel uncomfortable. My brother (who is also in the IT industry) has commented that two years isn't really that long, and his wife (who works at the HR department of another IT company) suggested that the job offer was actually a good one.

Hmmmm... but committing to a company that I'm not actually sure about, for two whole years. Let's just say it's enough to make me feel uneasy.




Do I see a pattern here?

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By the way, I also talked about my other job prospects with my brother, and he commented that he knew some friends who work there that weren't doing anything significant at all in their jobs, and he thinks that it might not be too good for me to join that company because I might happen to get the same kind of job. Makes me think twice.

And to everyone else, I'd like to hear your comments (okay, okay.... advice) about the Navitaire offer, especially since they gave me only until Monday (tomorrow, kids) to give them my decision.

trying hard not to sound desperate here

I had my final interview with Navitaire's director for product development yesterday. She basically grilled me about my intentions of joining their company, considering that I'm also interested with joining another company. Of course I couldn't really say that the other company was ranked higher on my list since that would definitely affect their evaluation of my application (d'oh) (I haven't even recieved a job offer from the other company yet.) I had a hard time convincing her that I was really interested in joining Navitaire, and I wasn't even sure she was convinced... so in the end I just decided to tell her that I was as interested with Navitaire as I was with the other company, and I'll choose who/whichever company gives me a better job offer(that is, if I actually get a job offer from both companies).

Speaking of the other company, I just got another call from them asking me to come to their office on Monday, 11:30 am (hey, lunch time yan ah... Anyone want to treat me to lunch after??? No? No one? Anyone? No? that's okay...) for another interview, which was strange since I got a call from them last week saying that my interview last monday was my final interview... So I guess this is my final final interview? Whatever it is, I (trying hard not to sound desperate here) really hope it gets me closer to a job there.

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Day two of the US Open saw 2003 champion and No. 4 Andy Roddick(USA) get upset by No. 68 Gilles Muller(LUX) to the score of 7-6(7-4), 7-6(10-8), 7-6(7-1). Roddick was one of the favorites to challenge No. 1 Roger Federer(SUI) for the title, but was beaten by the 22 year-old Muller, who was making his US Open debut and is the first man from Luxembourg to play at the tournament. Muller is no stranger to creating upsets, he had a big win over Andre Agassi(USA) last year and was also responsible for defeating No. 2 and French Open champ Rafael Nadal(ESP) at the second round of this year's Wimbledon (on his debut as well). Incidentally, Roddick was celebrating his 23rd birthday on the day he lost.

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Navitaire just called me up some odd seconds ago, I'll be there to discuss their job offer tomorrow. Nice.