F1 update

A scarlet car won the Shanghai leg of the F1 Grand Prix... the other one. Props to Rubens Barrichello for winning his 2nd in a row. Michael Schumacher looked like a mere mortal, getting a tire puncture, colliding with a Jaguar (with Christian Klien unable to continue, tsk tsk), and uncharacteristically spinning out. He finished 12th. My man Jenson Button finished 2nd, fortifying his 3rd spot in the driver's championship and BAR's 2nd place in the constructor's race, while Kimi Raikkonen (Mclaren) got third. I'll be rooting for Takuma Sato this time in his home race (Suzuka) this weekend. Go Taku!

Current favorite...

Everybody's Changing - Keane (Classified: Brit Pop/Rock) Refreshing to hear a three man band (drummer, keyboardist, and vocalist) prove that you can actually make music WITHOUT guitars. Check this one out when you get the chance...

Ketchup!

It's been a long time and I know I gotta write something so...

F1 update

Some news ahead of the inaugural Shanghai Formula 1 Grand Prix this weekend. Earlier this week, Fiat-owned Jaguar have said that they will not be participating in F1 beyond this season. Jaguar driver Mark Webber has already been pencilled into BMW Williams driver lineup for next season while co-driver Christian Klien's future is still up in the air. Also, with the impending sale of engine maker Cosworth, there is also speculation that it may also lead to the pull-out of both Jordan and Minardi, who both have been struggling the past few seasons. Since an agreement in Formula 1 stipulates there have to be at least 20 cars on the grid to have a legit race, there have been suggestions of other financially stable teams of fielding 3 cars instead of two. Heck, imagine three scarlet Ferraris in a single race... I'd be having nightmares if I was driving for one of the other teams.

Out of commission

Ey yo... not so close to the monitor... you never know what you might get from me... Oh alright. It's actually been a week since I've been well but I'm just being cautious. You can never be too careful, you know... better safe than harmful, este.. sorry. I was on leave the entire week last week 'cause I got sore eyes. I was the last in the household to get it. Luckily my mom was spared though... :) watched a lot of TV... so much I almost bore a hole in my chair in the bedroom. Caught some of the matches in the US Open... that Roger Federer IS really good. But of course, now I've been back at work since Monday and am still having a hard time getting myself back in the loop. And today has been particularly uneventful... *sigh* :( ..thankfully though, I have entertainment. :D This crazy officemate of mine passed by my seat and started singing this tune from "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy" at considerable volume, knowing full well that another officemate of ours was within earshot and that the guy was somewhat "suspicious" :p ...at least something to crack me up right there. I'm giving him a disc of the Amazing Race 5 - Manila leg that I burned last night as a prize for making me laugh and laugh good. Back to work....

F1 update

Much props to Rubens Barrichello of Ferrari for finally winning one this season at the Monza, Italy leg of the 2004 F1 season. It was a nice win on homeground for Ferrari, and refreshing since it wasn't won by a Schumacher. Incidentally, Schumi finished second after spinning out on the opening laps second chicane, and furiously fought back from what seemed like 16th place. Wala... mahusay talaga... (applause) Jarno Trulli of Renault was just cut from his driving seat to be replaced by either the comebacking Jacques Villenueve or one of their test drivers. In the Monza race also, BAR jumped Renault for second place on the constructor's title, as Jenson Button and Takuma Sato finished 3rd and 4th respectively for BAR giving them a 94-91 lead over Renault. Ferrari won the constructor's championship last race as they have about 3 million points or something already. Three races left: Shanghai, Suzuka and Brazil. 'Til a fortnight...

YM on the blink...

Friggin' Yahoo Messenger keeps turning on and off like lights on a Christmas tree... I gotta get to the bottom of whatever's wrong with this soon 'cause it's driving me nuts.

Lucky 13...

Dang... it's September 16.. that means I've been working here for 13 years. Is that good or bad? Gotta be honest, though. I'm a bit tired of the atmosphere... maybe 13 is a good place to stop. Bahala na...

Olympic Men's basketball

And oh... it was quite a showcase... no, not the US men's team made up of NBA pros... the rest of the world played much better, actually. The US only got the bronze after being eliminated (and severely outplayed) from the gold medal game by eventual gold medal winners Argentina. Ginobili, Scola, Montecchia and the 'Tines played a well-oiled passing game that was a joy to watch for any basketball fan. And the Argentine's spirits were equally engaging. It turns out they haven't won an Olympic gold medal in AGES, and they suddenly won two in Athens. And yeah, in conclusion, the Americans were ill-equipped for these other teams. Italy even went on a mind-blowing display of shooting the American team couldn't even dream of in their win over Lithuania which put them in the gold medal game. Italy's Basile was unconscious, making 7 three-pointers, breaking the US' Marbury's record of six just a few days earlier. World basketball (and the right way to play it) is alive and well...

F1 update

After a race win in Hungary gave Ferrari the year's constructor's championship and a second place finish in Belgium, Michael Schumacher of Ferrari just captured a record 7th drivers world championship. Wow... You gotta give it to him, he may not have that much quality opposition, but he crushes everyone, anyway. Props to McLaren Mercedes' Kimi Raikkonen for the win in Spa, he really gave it a superb run en route to his first win of the season. My man Jenson blew a tire and crashed into Minardi's Zsolt Baumgartner, fortunately neither was injured in the mishap. It's onto Monza and a first Grand Prix race in Shanghai, China for the next races on the F1 calendar!

Current favorite...

And speaking of Hoobastank... The Reason - Hoobastank (Classified: Post Grunge/Hard Rock/Pop) Funny that I've been listening to this for a couple of months now, but seem to find myself liking it all over again. One of the "reasons" (pardon the pun) is that I've always marvelled at how some songs are written, and how it is sometimes up to you to interpret them. This is a good example of a song which comes off as a straight love song, but is written in a way that it may have spiritual significance. Read the lyrics yourself and tell me what you think...

I'm not a perfect person There's many things I wish I didn't do But I continue learning I never meant to do those things to you And so I have to say before I go That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me To change who I used to be A reason to start over new and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you It's something I must live with everyday And all the pain I put you through I wish that I could take it all away And be the one who catches all your tears Thats why i need you to hear

I've found a resaon for me To change who I used to be A reason to start over new and the reason is You [x4]

I'm not a perfect person I never meant to do those things to you And so I have to say before I go That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me To change who I used to be A reason to start over new and the reason is you

I've found a reason to show A side of me you didn't know A reason for all that I do And the reason is you

33...

Oh yeah... I turned 33 last Sunday. The picture should explain what happened...

My faith was restored last night...

Before anyone gets any bright ideas, let me explain... I've been playing since I was 13 and have always been a fan of music, having been raised on FM radio (besides Reader's Digest and Sesame Street). I love every kind of music, every genre, but I've always found that I'm partial to anything which touches on rock. I'd been listening to radio all my school life, but hardly found time when I started working. It was during this time when the only music I chanced upon hearing was predominantly pop FM radio programming, while fringe rock stations (like NU 107) had too much juice for me to listen to at a sustained duration. Medyo nakakapagod, ika nga. So ever since, I've only had my fill of hard driving rock as seldom as it rains in the Sahara... well, I wouldn't know but it's a wise guess. Suffice it to say that it's been a while since I've had a good fix... Which brings me back to last night. What better way to try and get the juices flowing by watching and hearing adrenaline-pumping rock the best way you can experience it... live. It was the Folk Arts Theatre, and damn, it was HOOBASTANK! Being a bit detached lately, I only knew Hoobastank by name and by their new radio-friendly hit "The Reason" but knew little about their other stuff. There was this strange, curdling feeling in my gut, however, that I was about to get blown away. And I got it the moment I stepped into the theater... There I was, a 33 year old in a shirt and tie getting weird looks from teenage girls with their boyfriends arms around their necks, almost telling me "ano'ng ginagawa mo dito?" without opening their lips. And a large number of jologs kids wearing snow caps in a climate that doesn't snow, walking around in groups casing the other girls more than they were interested in watching a rock concert. I'm not a big fan of Rivermaya, but they opened the show with their usual high energy. I wasn't here for them anyway, let's be honest. After that, a dim-lit sound check and Hoobastank was on! The first low-burring sound of guitars brought the entire audience to their feet and they never let off until the entire set was through. It was a highly-charged performance from start to finish featuring about 5 or 6 turning leaps from guitar player Dan Estrin, solid bass playing from bassist Markku Lappalainen, drummer Chris Hesse's serious pounding (his hair was much less serious, but entertaining to see), and some strong singing and endearing antics from singer Doug Robb. They were pleasantly surprised at the initial reaction and raucous welcome they got that it prompted Doug to say "Manila, you kick ass!" after the very first song. He then asked the crew to turn the lights on the audience, then pulled out a camera and took pictures of the crowd, asking everyone to put their hands up while taking a number of shots. In the middle of the show, he asked, "you guys thirsty?" Doug and Dan proceeded to hand out mineral water bottles to the audience. Then toward the end of the show, Doug said, "I know I already said thanks, but THANK YOU Manila... you've been great!" which was met with a loud ovation from the crowd. They then played "The Reason" and asked the people to "sing it ten times louder than when you sang at the early part of the show." They even played "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (!) before closing out the show, and by then everyone was dead tired but well pleased. My faith in rock was restored last night... now I'm thinking of passing by the record store later to get me a Hoobastank album. It was my first time to watch a full-on rock concert, and the start-to-finish high-energy show knocked me out of my shoes. I wonder who's gonna come over next?

Ketchup!

Hmm... been away for a while. A bit busy, but it wasn't that tiring, actually... let's see.... hmm.... :)

US Olympic Men's Basketball Team to Athens

A lot things have been said about this Athens Olympics Dream Team; how they're too young and inexperienced, how they got clotheslined by Italy and needed a buzzer-beater to beat Germany in pre-Olympic exhibition matches (considering both countrys aren't the strongest opposition in international play). But I'm reserving comment until the Games start this Friday. Last Olympics in Sydney, I actually fell off my bed when Vince Carter of Team USA flew over and dunked on Frederic Weis of France. The guy Carter jumped over was 7'2".... SEVEN FEET AND TWO INCHES TALL. Para kang nanuod ng luksong-baka... kaya lang yung tumalon may hawak na bola... tapos yung 'taya' nakatayo ng tuwid... tapos sinlaki ng tikbalang. Win or lose this time around, I'm going to enjoy the new Dream Team and their talented players... specially my namesake, Carmelo Anthony.

Wireless blogging

Bad trip... most of the ideas I have that I want to post to the blogs come to me at the most inconvenient time... while I'm on the road. I've been trying to configure my blog to accept posts from my cellphone pero di pa umuubra. I hope someone else has got this working... surf, surf, surf...

4.59%

The significance of this percentage? This is the share of users on the entire Internet who use a browser called Mozilla, instead of Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Nagkataon na isa ako dun. If ever you need your browser to block pop-up ads, and if you've never felt the tremendous advantages of tabbed browsing (browsing several pages within a single browser window), you should give Mozilla a spin. Try either Mozilla v1.7.2, or the slimmer cousin Firefox v0.9.3. Even the entire staff of blogger.com uses Mozilla, unlike 94%+ users on the Internet.

Javier in Manila

Wow... I just learned that R&B artist Javier is going to be in Manila. Ok, so he has just one hit so far ("Crazy") but it's the kind of song you'd be willing to sit through an entire 30 to 45 minute set just to hear him perform it at the end. So if I don't have anything lined up Friday, August 20, I might be at the Greenbelt 3 fountain area at 8pm that night.