ULTIMATE!!!

...my legs ache... *groan*

Yesterday was the 2nd day of the Malakas at Maganda ultimate frisbee tournament league. I was one of the rookie players in the team, so I wasn't expecting much field time for the games and had my DSLR cam at-hand for some sports/action photography. The team had to go against 3 other teams yesterday, and each game lasts for 70 minutes.

I ended up playing for about 60-65 minutes for each game mainly because the team was undermanned yesterday, and there were only just enough of us to play the required positions in the game.

That's more than 3 hours of running and sprinting all over the field. And sadly, no action shots.

But, I scored 6 goals and had a positive feeling that I contributed to the team's victory.

My 10 Reasons Why Ultimate Frisbee is a Great Sport

1. Lose the inches. In two weekends of playing, I've lost 1 inch on my waistline (from 31 down to 30) despite gaining 2 pounds on my weight.

2. Tone your legs. All that sprinting, jumping and running around to get possession of the disc will definitely work out your calves, quads and hamstring muscles.

3. Define your ab muscles. Granting that your body fat is not that much, you'll definitely start seeing definition on your ab section. Playing frisbee involves use of the core muscles maybe for all those breaks and sudden turns and mid-air twists, and certainly for those long throws.

4. Cardiovascular workout. Healthier heart and healthier lungs. Easily burn off 500 calories in one game! Second wind gets you going.

5. There's a science involved. Aerodynamics actually. If you can identify the factors of air resistance, disc rotation, tilt, release velocity and direction, you can be confident of the trajectory of the frisbee. Science helps in making you figure out how those some of those spectacular throws are possible.

6. Pain is my friend. Well, I enjoy the feeling of self-induced (muscle) pain. It gives me the feeling of an increased performance level. =) No pain, no gain. I believe that pain makes you a stronger person.

7. Girls. Self-explananatory. =)

8. For the lover of the elements. Play under the sun or the rain, with or without winds, on a dry or muddy field, the game's still on. And doing rolls or dives or slides on the grass is fun!

9. It's fast, and it's a team sport. Mostly physical, but some mental skills also required. Knowing how to utilize all of your team's strengths and cover the weaknesses pays off. It takes all of the team's effort to score a single goal -- handlers, defenders, receivers and runners.

10. It's a cool sport, but the community is cooler. Being a "new" sport, the frisbee community is pretty close-knit, friendly and the potential for networking is high. Moreover, most of the veteran players are more than willing to teach the rookies their tips and tricks in order to improve their skill levels.

Ultimate!!!

Congratulations

Yup, Lissa's got it right. I've been gearing myself up since last night to announce this:

To Lissa, Mommy G, Roms, Chie, Niks, Gert, Aldy, Poch, BM, Tony, Nikki, May, Mae, June, and Lei, and the rest of my blue-blooded friends and "mentors":

CONGRATULATIONS to you and your school for taking the UAAP Men's Basketball title this year. =D

Until next year. Sana may re-match. Hahahaha!

ANIMO.

The Good and The Bad

The BAD

If you think you can do a better job than me, I'll be more than happy to get my hands off of this project. I actually DARE you.

I'm already mentally exhausted over it, no thanks to the pressure from different parties. I choose to be credible than be "manipulative".

I'm really disappointed at the way we advocate Honesty and Integrity as core values but fail to uphold it when the pressure's applied.


The GOOD

I and my best friend went out for drinks on Saturday night with his 5-year-old son (my godson) in tow. We just came from a Superfriends-themed children's party earlier and decided to unwind a bit before heading to our respective homes.

Being the guys we are, the two of us soon found ourselves playing the "ratings" game for the girls that we see strolling by.

Me: "Hmm... she's a 7."
Him: "No way, man. At least an 8."
godson: "8!....9!....10!....11!"
Me: "Kid knows how to count. Great."
Him: "He's got gold stars for Math at his playschool. I'm not like that. Mana sa ninong!"
Me: "Dude, that's because I give him the incentive to do well at school, specially in Math. (to godson) Maq, what do you need to do to get a Gameboy?"
godson: "Learn to read and count! Ninong, sa school hindi pa kami nag-r-read... pa'no yun?"
Me: "You can ask your Papa."
Him: "Dude, 9 coming."
Me: "Yup, definitely a 9. Heard that? You can teach him to read."
Him: "My son's going to be a geek."
Me: "Hahahaha... I don't think so."
Godson: "Ninong, ninong, open your eyes! Open your eyes!"
Me: "Why? What do you want me to see?"
Godson: "(whispering) ...ten..."

Maq just spotted a really tall, good-looking lady. And definitely a ten.

Hahaha.

Ultimate

What: Ultimate Frisbee Tournament League (All Female/All Male Matches)
Venue: Ayala Alabang Village Country Club

It was generally a hot blistering day last Sunday, but it was a good day to play frisbee and take some action shots.

Cheers

One weekend, my peers got me drunk on Scotch and I woke up not being able to remember more than 70% of what happened the previous night. I woke up on my bed still wearing the same clothes I wore the previous night with the most terrible hangover I’ve experienced in a year, plus a bruise on my shoulder which we haven't figured out yet how I got it.

Another weekend, my best friend got me drunk with wine. I do remember having drinks in the pool at his floating bar with his mom, very late in the night. I woke up at their guest room with no hangover; rather, I felt light and happy.

On another weekend, my cousin got me drunk with beer. He broke up with his girlfriend of 8 years a month ago, resigned from his job, and flying out to Singapore next month. We drank at my place, celebrating. I woke up on our living room couch with no hangover and my cousin snoring, a trail of vomit going to our front door.

Lastly, on another weekend, I fixed myself a shot of whiskey and played the piano (I haven’t played the piano in a long time) and the violin. I had the house to myself. I couldn’t sleep then, but I didn’t want to go out either. I woke up the following day with melodies in my head.

Drinks anyone?

Throwing Spagetti on the Wall

If there’s one extraordinary cooking tip that I learned from my Malaysian colleagues MinYee and JayWyn, it’s cooking spagetti noodles.

I’ve been cooking decent dishes for about 10 years now, able to duplicate most of my mom’s dishes. I tried to learn how to cook by being so geeky about it --- making mental models of the heat input, convection, precise measurements, monitoring time and color/smell changes which marked chemical reactions in the pot. I attempted to cook with a scientific approach.

But science experiments are meant to be trial-and-error activities. Food being an expensive commodity nowadays, I realized that making mistakes when cooking can prove to be a very wasteful activity.

Most cooks have it to an art.

And then I figured out that the art of cooking is just a scientific activity wherein the scientist can exploit the tolerance bands of smell, flavor and palatability as a function of time and heat.

But some things, like spagetti noodles, do not have indicators for smell or flavor. Aside from checking the noodle consistency for al dente, I mostly end up with spagetti noodles not to my exact liking whenever I cook it. Al dente is pretty subjective – how do you exactly specify it to the scientific cook?

And then, a couple of smart kids came along and told me to just throw the spagetti noodles on the wall.

If it’s cooked, it’ll stick to the wall. If it’s undercooked, it’ll slide off.

I was skeptic about the theory, but when they demonstrated it to me I was just amazed.

Last night, I cooked a tomato-and-basil sauce and some spagetti noodles for dinner. And yup, I threw a couple of noodles on the wall.

They stuck to the wall looking like albino earthworms.

The noodles turned out to be great, exactly just how I like it.

Next time, I’ll try throwing chicken wings on the wall. Hahaha. Just kidding.

My Room as My Sanctuary

In the last couple of years, I’ve been living in a fairly big studio-type room allotted by the company I work for for bachelors like me. I find it perfect for my various requirements: the occasional privacy-slash-alone-time-moments, hosting small dinners or drinking sessions, letting a few friends sleepover for the weekend, my after-office-hours workplace, my private multimedia entertainment room and of course, my sleeping quarters.

In a couple of weeks time, I’ll be moving out of my current room and transfer to an adjoining room. The reason is primarily for aesthetics, but practicality is a near second. I wanted a room with more windows.

And moving into a new space generates some giddiness in me and some rampant spending.

I’ve bought a spanking-new, shiny, black LCD TV.
I’ve bought a dark-themed painting from a friend’s sister.
I’m buying romanian-type curtains in brown.
I’m scouting for a couple of tall wooden bookshelves.
A new bathroom mirror and a new shower curtain.
A wall-mirror.
A cheap low-but-long TV stand that’ll fit my new TV with enough room left-over for my game consoles and DVD player.

All these will cost me a little over a hundred grand.

I figured that if I’m staying in that room for another couple of years, I should make it comfortable and live-able by my standards. As soon as I’ve got everything set-up, I’d invite a few friends over as a sort of housewarming.

My room is my sanctuary.

Was, Is, and Will Always Be

That's my current working concept.

Of what?

I'm not telling. Hehehe.

Happy Birthday Bro!

Lampayatot.
Couch potato.
Die-hard Barangay Ginebra fan.
Janice's other half.
Sweet tooth.

The other day, one of my colleagues was showing the new girl in the group some of the photos and videos of the various fun activities that we held over the last few years -- parties+get-togethers, a Sesame-street style video (which won us 30 thousand pesos) and some dancing on the side. The girl says, "How do you guys manage to do these things so well and so fun-looking?"

Guy answers, "Well, mostly because of Glenn and Stip." High-five for you dude.

To the top guy on my favorite people list, happy birthday bro!

Saturday Night Mike

1.

It takes me some getting used to to be referred to as Mike or Mikey. Sure, I get called by that nickname when I'm with my family and relatives, but on a Saturday night out with friends? It takes some getting used to.

Haven't seen most of my high school friends in almost 10 years. Everybody called me Mike or Mikey then.

But on Saturday night, despite the rains and flashfloods in Makati, I found myself sitting and drinking among them at my batchmate Onin's bar and being referred to as Mike. We had a blitz party for Jayson who's on vacation from his Dubai-based work.

Hahaha... I was appointed to be bangka that night. Had to rack through my brains searching for worthwhile snippets to discuss and laugh about that night. Called the shots on which topics to talk about.


2.

Yeah, I like this shot! (photo taken during a karting party with friends/colleagues)




3.

If you spend 5 hours inside the car travelling to somewhere and spending only an hour at our coffee shop destination, does my car count as a date place? *snicker* =)

Showtime

1.

Congratulations to the Tabangao team for winning 3rd place in the country-wide dance contest among the various business units of our company. Held last Friday at One Esplanade Place, the annual dance competition's theme this year is "OPM Selection".

True to our site's 'baduy-on-the-outside-but-kwela-on-the-inside' demeanor, we settled for Andrew E. (well, we actually wanted Parokya ni Edgar but somebody picked that option first).

Some stills of the group's winning and fun performance. Congratulations guys and girls!
If you look really, really hard, you'll actually see me onstage. Hahaha.










2.

Kaye's off for a cross-post assignment to Singapore starting next week, so we gave her a send-off party the other night.

What's "special" about this send-off is that she requested for LIVE performances of our musical talents.

Good luck on your next assignment, Kaye!
And see you at Amanpulo in the future. Hahahaha.

Elements

1. WATER

So that's how scuba diving feels like. It feels like a pre-meditated suicide.

A couple of weekends back, one of my colleagues sort of kidnapped me to accompany him on his dive trip. He figured that I'll finally do Discover Scuba (which I did) while he goes for a couple of dives somewhere nearby.

Note to readers: I'm paranoid about open waters.
Another note to readers: I've drowned twice when I was younger, and had been resuscitated twice. (Yep, the whole routine of one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and-five-and-six-and-seven-and-BLOW --- CPR). I'm living my third life already.

I decided on that day to finally confront my paranoia of the deep blue sea.

By mid-morning, I've been geared up into a wet suit, don on a snorkel mask and a pair of fins.

I breezed through the basics -- deflating the BCD, inflating the BCD, worked on a few hand signals, did mask clearing, retrieved my regulator and scubadived in the pool. Breathe in, breathe out. I'm okay. The instructor was happy with me.

The hard part for me is doing it in open water. Hahaha!

Swallowing my fear, I took the plunge in the sea.
There's an initial rush of adrenaline.
And found myself going deeper and deeper.
And then some peace.
And found myself smiling.

So that is how diving feels like. It's the same feeling that I get when I let go of a burden. Things feel lighter, I get to enjoy the scenery and everything just passes you by.

I think scuba diving is going to be an interesting... uhm... pasttime. Not a potential hobby for me (yet), but definitely a pasttime.


2. FIRE

Lightning suppossedly doesn't strike the same spot twice. But it can strike a nearby area without any doubt. Strike two.

I've a pretty good idea where it's gonna strike next.


3. AIR

I bought the whole MAXIMUM RIDE series by James Patterson a couple of nights ago. I finished the first two books in less than 24 hours.

I breezed through it. It really has been an adventurous read so far.


4. EARTH

I'm hoping for good weather this weekend. I'm going mountain-climbing. Yahoooo!