When Angels and Demons Have Fun

Who: The Team

Venue: at some particular hotel suite in Ortigas

Date: on some particular day of October 2008

Why: October/November celebrants party + Halloween(?) party




After a hot afternoon game, around 30 people, including myself, partied in a hotel suite in Ortigas this month with an “Angels and Demons” theme. Initially, I thought they were kidding on being in costume. But they weren’t.


Good thing that Joc had the foresight to buy some extra “props”, in case some of the guys (like me) doesn’t show up with an Angel/Demon costume or accessory. Thanks for the angel wings, Joc!

A rundown of the night’s events, based on what I remember:

1. Hands down, the most exciting game for the night was Bato-Bato-Pik. The whole room was shouting at the outcome of the Bato-Bato-Pik challenge.

2. Best costume was Vern’s, who came as Sweeney Todd. Chew in a Japanese school girl outfit with a halo and JP arriving as George Michael with fairy wings probably battled it out for the second best costume.


3. Ron calling me “dude”, and me calling him “dude” as well because neither of us have been introduced to each other, until somebody else pointed out that we “stop calling each other dude”.

4. A certain Chinese girl was so tipsy after one shot of Rhum coke. But I give her credit for trying hard to still be “lively” throughout the party.

5. I’VE NEVER game statement: “I’ve never given a woman 3 O’s in one minute.” And somebody drank up. HE THE MAN!

6. Marlon and Rodney as booze runners --- the two of them combined, they gave me (this is the sequence as I remember it) 3 shots of vodka, 2 servings of rhum coke, 3 shots of ginebra+lime, 3 ½ shots of tequila, 2 shots of Jag, 1 glass of Jag later on, and 2 shots of schnappes. That last shot of schnappes sent me running to the toilet for a… uhm…period of reflection.

7. Playing Dance-Dance Revolution on Wii is twice the fun if you’re drunk.

8. The girls lining up for a group shot.

9. By 2 am, only 3 people were left sober.

10. Had to use my first aid rescue/transfer skills on soemone; he was too drunk to stand up, and was becoming a hazard to the rest of the party.

11. Party was still going on at 6 am!

12. Taking photos, and half of them are ones that you don’t remember taking. Hahaha.

13. [Stage whisper]: “Shhhhhhhh….. that’s supposed to be a secret!”


By the way, on record the Angels group won the night’s games. But who cared? =)

Until the next party! Oh, and lest that I forget, happy birthday to the celebrants!

Somebody floated the idea of a “Merry XXXmas and NAUGHTY New Year” party.

Friday, 1600H

At last. Pwede ng umuwi, tapos na duty ko.
Yahoo!

I haven't gotten used to it yet, but here's an attempt for having a bit of weekend team-spirit:

BOOM.

Laying Down my Domino Piece on Black Friday

The newspaper headlines last Friday hit me hard. It got me worried.

”Massive sell-offs on world stocks: Nikkei, Dow Jones plunges”

I’ve got a small portfolio on stocks, about 9000 USD in worth as of end September. My net gain so far is about 14%. Some of my stocks were gifts from my parents and a godfather, but more than two-thirds of these I’ve accumulated slowly over the last five years.

Ever since I’ve gotten my first stocks certificate (25 shares on Intel), I haven’t sold any of them. Until last Monday though.

I sold about half of my portfolio value in order to raise enough money for a cash downpayment on a condo unit I’m keen on buying this month. I’ve been poring over it for weeks, analyzing my financial situation and cash flow. After consulting my status with a couple of financial experts, I’m convinced that I can manage this project.

Now here’s the thing: After reading the headlines last Friday, did I somehow contribute to the sharp decline on stocks values all over the world? I felt that my action there was like laying down my personal domino piece on the event leading to last Friday’s world headlines. I’m wondering if my stocks selling was part (even a tiny bit) of the “massive sell-offs” being acknowledged around the globe?

The upside of the whole thing is that if I didn’t sell my stocks last Monday, I would have lost about 400$ in value today (talk about a bearish sale!). It’s a measly sum compared to the 1 TRILLION DOLLARS reported be lost in the global stocks market plunge last Friday but 400$ is a lot of money for someone who works in a country with an average annual per capita income of around 800$.

I do hope that the country won’t fall into the same mortgage crisis as to what happened in the US. Otherwise, I’d really be in deep kimchi 4 or 5 years from now. (Fingers crossed…)

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Just an update on my frisbee playing: our team lost 8-6 last weekend. It was, again, a Spartan effort for us. I scored 3 goals, had a couple of picture-perfect catches (but no photos of it, darn!), overstretched my left arm/shoulder (now I understand why some of the guys have medical tape on their upper arms) and cramped my right hamstring again. It was tiring but fun.

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Get a copy of Wedding Essentials 2008, and look for the feature article on Glenn and Janice's wedding. =) I tried looking for a copy at ATC last weekend, but no success so far though.

It was raining heavily. Visibility was down to about 40 feet. We were down 12-8 on goals.

At the end line, all of us were already weary. We were only five, against the other team’s ten. We’ve been throwing, catching and running like hellhounds for the last sixty minutes. No substitutions, no chance to catch our breaths or rest our cramped limbs.

In the rain, I can see my teammates’ resolve to push on for the remaining ten minutes of the match. Water streaming down our faces, we gave each other whispered words of encouragement.

“We can still do this.”

“The next goal is ours!”

I just nodded. I’m conserving what remaining energy I have for a burst sprint that will most probably be needed from me in a few minutes.

Rod threw the disc for the pull. We were playing defense for this next goal.

We ran, taking up a man from the opponent’s team and marked each of them. I can vaguely hear the cheers coming from the grandstand, drowned out by the water splashes made by our cleated shoes pounding on the rain-soaked playing field.

I and my teammates were already at the limits of our endurance. Running and defending against our opponents, hoping for a possible interception and turnover. I can sense that all of us were already slowing down.

And then luck smiled upon us. An opponent fumbled on one of the passes and failed to catch the disc. It was a turnover. The rain receded slightly.

We seized the opportunity.

By some mental connection, all of us knew where to go and what to do.

Vern, at midfield, threw the disc to Rod. JP and I were sprinting towards our goalzone. The disc's flight was arced, but Rod caught it while running.

Rod held the disc for a few seconds longer, waiting for JP to establish his position at the quarterfield.

I kept on running towards the goalzone. I glanced back, and saw Rod threw the disc backhanded to JP.

Two defenders were going towards JP. While running, I gave JP the nod to throw the disc.

He threw it. Forehand throw. High. The disc gained elevation momentarily.

And I ran like hell after it, feeling the rain streaming down my face. I could hear the cheers coming from the grandstand.

I was almost near the end of the goalzone, but the disc is still 6 feet above and away from me.

I jumped, my left arm stretched upwards, my momentum bringing me directly under the disc.

I felt my fingers connect with the disc.

I finger-clawed the disc.
….
…
..
.

“AAAAOOOOWWWW…”, the crowd cried unhappily.

The disc slid by my fingers. It flew on, outside the goal zone.

I landed on the wet ground, frustrated, and collapsed my whole body on the grass.
I was panting.
The puddle I was lying on comforted me.

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Our team lost eventually, 13-8.

We were tired and wet. We huddled underneath a tree. Our white jerseys were now brown, soiled with mud. We clapped each other’s back for the hard-fought battle earlier.

But many people, including our opponents, came up to us and congratulated us for a great game, despite our numbers being few. Some of the viewers from the grandstand even told us that they've become our “fans” while watching the game.

One guy, in particular, summarized everything neatly. "You guys have great hearts."

Until the next game.

One More Chance

It’s ironic that the first group-watching, popcorn-laden, wine-drinking movie that was previewed at my new pad was a local romantic film.

One, I rarely watch Tagalog movies. Generally, I find the scriptwriting and videography of the local films too common; I’d rather be engrossed playing a video game than watch a ho-hum movie.

Two, it was a romantic film. Cheesy films are just not my type. I’m more of the horror-movie type of fan.

The Tu/Th swimming club decided to have a movie session last night after our regular laps at the pool. After a sumptuous dinner of Cille’s chicken wings, Rico’s caldereta and my salted porkchops, everyone squeezed into my studio-type pad to watch Angelle’s movie selection for the night, One More Chance (starring John Lloyd Cruz and Bea Alonzo). 10 of us settled down, passed around wine (excellent dry wine!) brought by Maimai and sugar-coated donuts contributed by Julie.

It wasn’t meant to be a funny movie, but we found ourselves laughing half of the time because of somebody else’s occasional side-comment. Some of the characters and situations reminded us of relate-able events and personalities at our workplace.

Anyway, the movie wasn’t that bad. What it didn’t make up for the storyline, the side-stories among the movie-watchers made it enjoyable.

I hope they suggest seeing a horror flick next time. Or a sci-fi movie. =)

P.S.

1) Good luck to Angelle for her upcoming board exams. Yep, the reason for the movie night was because she’s gonna be away for a month to review for her board exams.
2) Good luck din to Boks for your annual physical exam. Hehehe.