Bum

So it all comes to this. I am finally a bum.

More posts about being a bum in the next few days.

NBA Regular Season 2005-2006

Well, the NBA regular season is finally over. It's certainly a lot better, and more eventful than other unmemorable seasons. I'm pretty satisfied with this season, and what do I mean by that.

First of all, two of the three teams I'm rooting for are in the playoffs. They are the LA Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers, with the unfortunate disappointment that is the Golden State Warriors. Then, three of my favorite players are in the running for MVP: Kobe Bryant, Lebron James, and Dwyane Wade. Then I've got a new idol in Chris Paul. Then there was that 62 pts in 3-quarters followed by the historic 81 point game by Kobe Bryant who broke various records in doing so. I got the recap video stored in my precious iPod. And like what many journalists are saying, I also believe that he put the entire Eagle, Colorado thing behind him with this great season performance. He also bagged the scoring title for the first time. Next, is the re-emergence of the Human Highlight Film in Vince Carter, whose highlight reel includes a nasty throwdown early in the season against Alonzo Mourning, among others. Finally, one of the feel-good stories of the season in the LA Clippers, once the laughingstock of the NBA, clinching a playoff spot with great maturity and confidence.

Can't wait for the playoffs.

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The end of the regular season also means the end of fantasy basketball. In our head-to-head league in the office, I got second place, losing at the end with a score of 4-5. This figure means that of all the stats we are tallying, he other guy had better numbers in five categories (field-goal %, assists, etc.) as opposed to my four. Anyway, it was a good run. Hope I win it all next year.

After Holy Week Thoughts

You know, one of the toughest things you will face while adjusting to a healthy lifestyle is having to buy clothes that will actually fit you. My office clothes are too loose for me now. My pants are one size too big; I'm now a 33. My polos are (I think) half a size too big; I'm now a 15 1/2 (whatever that numerical value means) or a medium. Anyway, if you must know, I'm pretty much done with the business attire for a while. I think my new office attire will consist of short-sleeved polos and slacks, including dress-down Fridays. It's a welcome change.

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On Saturday, me and my college buddies are going to Subic! Finally, after weeks and weeks of not spending days off somewhere "summer-y". Man, we're wasting the summer heat by not going out. I heard that it's La Niña season. All the more we need to maximize the dry weather. The month of May should be jam-packed with outings! I'd like to try out whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain climbing, more traveling and such in the next few months.

Right now, I really, really feel that I'm waking up from something. And it feels so good.

Waking Up

I though it was appropriate to post this in the beginning of the Easter season. A new life is ahead of me, in the form of new work. Yes, friends, if you haven't heard yet, I am switching jobs after the 28th of April, in the year of our Lord 2006.

I don't talk about work much in this blog because of obvious reasons and I'm not going to go into detail now. If you want, we can always talk it over in person, through email, text, YM or by even giving me a call. But never through this blog.

I'll post another one just before my last day. It will be a general wrap-up, lessons learned, a lot of thank-yous, farewells, and wish-me-lucks.

So little time, so much to watch

It's not a habit for me to go out to the beach or to the mountains during Holy Week. Instead, like a lot of people who don't walk barefoot from Mandaluyong to Antipolo, engage in self-flagellation, or joing parish procession, I stay home and watch DVDs. Aside from the NBA and The Simpsons DVDs that I've seen recently, here are some others which I have watched during the break:

Bottle Rocket - One of Owen and Luke Wilson's earliest works about an inept group of wanna-be criminals trying to pull off a grand heist. Fairly entertaining. I don't think anybody would learn anything new from here. Pretty normal screwball comedy. Thanks to Zsazsa for lending!

The Princess Bride - Something old yet something new. Way before Shrek, came this fresh twist of fantasy about lost loves and daring (and unconventional) rescues. Special participation from Andre the Giant. Starring pre-"Men in Tights" Cary Elwes and pre-"Mrs. Penn" Robin Wright.

Munich - You'd think the break is also about giving your brain a break from thinking as well. But I watched Munich anyway. It's a movie about retaliation against the group Black September who was responsible for the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre. The message is pretty clear for anyone who watches the movie. Still, I could've watched a movie that was a lot easier to digest.

Still on the To-Watch List:

Goal!, Crash, Capote

The Ricky Gervais Show Podcast

Part of the appeal of having an iPod (or any digital audio player for that matter) is listening to podcasts or radio shows, whenever you want. There are a lot of podcasts available over the Internet. You can get NBA daily recaps and updates, Vintage ToonCasts (which include nostalgic Superman cartoons) and various other TV show and Music news updates. Most of them are free while some are on a paid subscription basis (which I think automatically classifies them as audiobooks instead). One of the most famous podcast series is The Ricky Gervais Show.

I'd rather not repeat whatever's in the Wikipedia article so I'll just say that I find this show really funny and really insane at the same time. It's not so much a radio show as it is usapang lasing. I understand though that the humor (sorry, humour) is not for everyone.

Unfortunately, the producers of the show have decided to stop the free distribution of the podcast. Due to its popularity, they've decided to capitalize on the tremendous demand for the podcast and distribute them on a paid basis from Audible.com.

Of course, there's still P2P networks. This show deserves to be heard by everyone.

Craziness Ensues

I came from V-mall yesterday and the iPod (w/ video) 30GB is at the P14,xxx.xx level in most stores. I still don't know the reason for the price drop. Anyway, I'm satisfied with my iPod. I've loaded about 8GB of data including movie trailers, video podcasts and an episode of Sealab 2021 (Lost in Time, my favorite). I've experienced only one glitch so far when it froze after not using it for a day. Resetting the unit did the trick and everything's still intact.

Quicktime Pro 7 is terrible at converting some videos. That Sealab 2021 episode that I got took two hours to convert. After which, it turned out that the output video had no sound. In contrast, the cool and very free software called Videora did the job in about ten minutes. No sweat.

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We had that FHM autograph signing the other day and of course I had to buy a copy of the magazine. I read it a few days ago. It's not really all that interesting to read. I guess there's a market for this somewhere. Me? I wouldn't buy another copy unless there's another autograph signing worth going to.

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After a really long break, resulting to dangerously skinny arms, I've gone back to lifting a few weights every now and then. It's always very hard to start something after a long hiatus and yet very easy to stop something like this (whenever I feel like). So anyway, good luck to me and my willpower.

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Holy Week: Time to Reflect.

Nancy

IMG_0591
Originally uploaded by ton2fig.

Me and the guys at the office decided to do something for kicks.

Yesterday, we went to Robinson's Galleria for lunch. As we went up the escalators, we noticed a banner promoting an autograph signing for FHM Philippines, with covergirl-actress Nancy Castiglione.

Ding! Light bulb!

So anyway, I had to convince the guys to go and have some magazines signed today. Of course at first, everybody was enthusiastic and we'd laugh at ourselves for coming up with the idea. They didn't realize that it was a serious suggestion. Hah!

It could've been embarrassing and humiliating. But, Carpe Diem!

I even had to bring my trusty Powershot S80 to show them that I was serious.

Anyway, I don't even have the slightest crush on Nancy. I mean, she's cute in print and in person (ok, a slight crush). But this is more of a quick boy's night out, and it just cost us P125.00 for the magazine. It took us about ten minutes to walk to Robinsons' from the office, around ten minutes to line up (the line stopped moving when she got interviewed for a few minutes), and we were already out of there before six in the evening.

The line wasn't so long yet, when we arrived. There were around 10 people ahead of us in the line. Lots more not in the line, but phone cameras in hand surrounding the area. When it was our turn, she was kind enough to sign the article inside and also the glossy cover (which will probably fade away soon) and pose for a few quick snaps. She wore this green tee that said "I'm not with Stupid [we just broke up]". I don't get it.

Go check out the flickr pics I took with Marjay, Toberts and Jon.

I wonder who's on the next cover?

Major Drop in Pounds and Prices

Hey, I finally reached my goal of losing weight down to 145 lbs from an all-time high of 156 lbs. Actually, it fluctuates from 145-148, which is pretty good for me. Unfortunately, I'm in danger of looking scrawny and still have a flabby waist. How gross does that look? I'm not starving myself, anyway. I just eat fruits (fuji apples and crimson seedless grapes), yoghurt or raisins when I'm hungry. Sometimes, I drink grape juice. Hey, it worked for me.

True enough, it's a lifestyle change, and I like it so far. It's just a bit expensive to maintain (for example, non-fat yoghurt costs around P28.00 a cup) but yields dividends. I learned to cover the costs by cutting down on chocolate, junk food (although, I've given up junk food a long-long time ago, except for the occassional kropek), soft drinks and artificial juices.

But I better start going back to weight lifting soon and continue the "slimming" momentum with some aerobic exercise like jogging. Remember the flabby waist? I learned that of all the obvious body flab, they're the last to go. So there's still a lot of work to be done.

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I lost the argument.

And because I did, I now have a brand new iPod Video 30GB! Woohoo!

If you remember a few posts back, I said that I could never convince myself that I need an iPod. Ok, so maybe I still don't need it now, but I certainly wanted it when I bought it. One big reason is the BIG DROP IN PRICES of the iPod. I listed the iPod Video 30GB at P18,990 locally. Guess what, it's down to P15,xxx.xx in V-Mall (the former Virra Mall) in Greenhills. If you're lucky (or unlike me, not particular about color) you can get it as low as P14,800.00. That's even cheaper than in the U.S.! So go! Buy now! I've no idea why they dropped prices. There's no explanation except that they've gone crazy.

Meanwhile, I have to go load my CDs in, and download some podcasts...

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Hey, congratulations to all who passed the BAR exams! Just what we need, more lawyers!