I was TKOd By A Punching Bag!

I always say (well at least I used to)"How can you be so Tanga?" when dumb things are committed. Now I can say that to myself. "How could I be so tanga?".

Why?

Answer: Feeling stiff, weak, pale, sick all rolled into one, I went at ground floor of my building and asked admin if I can box using his punching bag.

Admin says “yes”.

I went straight ahead. I pounded the bag like crazy. WITHOUT A PAIR OF GLOVES. Maybe because, Manny Pacquiao - Erik Morales Reunion Fight around the corner, so I was pumped. Or maybe, I was frustrated because the admin made me pay P90 H20 consumption for only 3 days of stay in the building so I vent it all there (at that rate, I’ll be paying P900/month?). Finally, I maybe frustrated because I can't get no broadband connection here in my place. So I was like little-Rocky out there.

{Why no broadband? NO Smart Bro - Owner says I can't hang wires and smart antenna or whatever that thing is. NO PLDT - My line is Globe. NO Sky Internet - Building is exclusive to Destiny. Just what the hell will I use?}

Back to the "tanga" thing...

I went like 15 to 20 minutes punching the bag. A little pawis here and there then I went back in my unit to get some juice.

Little did I know that my knuckles is as red as a ripe tomatoe. In short, NANGAMATIS!

The damn punching bag got back at me. Now, my knuckles are wounded. Four wounds! Four circled wounds!

Next weekend I’m gonna be buying GLOVES (if not, boxer wrap or band, whatever that thing again is) and I'll get back at that punching bag again. Round Two!

Link Popularity Checker

If you are feeling like internet-pre-madonna and want to check out how popular your site/blog is, free link popularity tools are abound. One is by Rolando Lavapie. He authored the link popularity tool found here.

His link says... This link popularity tool box will help webmaster to find how many are linking to their sites. This tool will query the major search engines such as google, msn and yahoo to determine how many pages on the internet contains links to your site. The more links there are, the more traffic you will get. And many search engines today such as google are ranking sites by the number of sites linking to them.

Just don’t try this tool here in my blog, coz I am no link sucker. No one links to this site expect my grandma.

Paul Shirley's Dead Ball Career

Barely a week to go, two prominent NBA players wanting to get back in the NBA was cut by their respective teams. One was Jay Williams and another guy was Paul Shirley. Doesn’t ring a ball, err, bell eh? I am not surprised that you do not know him coz the guy rarely played. (And yes, Shirley is guy.)

But if you frequent ESPN.com/nba past months, you would probably get to follow his journal, aptly titled, “My So-called Career”. The blog segment is his literal journey in the NBA, as he bounces from team to team and countries to countries playing as an import.

Shirley, 28, is one of few ESPN-NBA bloggers slash writers slash contributors. He’s one hell of a blogger. His choice of words, his candidness and his cynicism is as fresh as you can get. He is not the proto-typical writer. Even his failed quest in landing a TV show was dealt upon in his blog. Among other things, he likes to talk music in his blog and with occasional sarcastic say in pop culture, of course sports, TV, cheerleaders, etc.

Complete read here.

Opisina Problema

PART 1.

It seems I am using my blog to vent some anger, to let me breathe out some things that makes my blood pressure shoot up. Most of time, when I blog some personal things, rough estimate, 75% of the time, these are negative stuff.

Well, earlier tonight, I was in a spat with a contractor. In partnership with other folks, we are to open a shop/office of some sort and being the nearest one at site, I was tagged as the construction manager per se.

But this contractor guy, wanted me to pay the whole contract amount tonight, when, the the job is not 100% done. He wanted to leave out ONLY 10% of the labor contract amount as an assurance that he'll comeback tomorrow.

I said, 'Oh no my friend'. It can't be that way. Thus, he went on a bargaining plea. He said, give me this amount tonight. To which, I replied "wag mo didiktahan". Sounds like an Erap line eh?

The contract is for us to pay after the job is completely done. And not, 80%, not 90% and not 99%. The conversation went downhill after that. I'll just see what our moods will be tomorrow. I just hope we can make up and them, paint up and clean up, as there are panels left un-painted and debris all-over the space. And then, I'll pay up siyento porsyento, tonto!

PART 2.

If you are thinking of establishing a business, think a million times if you are to get your life partner (wife, gf, bf, husband, fiancé) as a business associate. Coz when something comes up in the business, and you engage her/him in heated business argument, you'll carry this into your home and onto your relationship. It’s unhealthy. So thinking a billion times might be better. Trust me, I just went through it today and will perhaps go thru this for the years to come.

New Unit So I can Work In Peace

I have just moved in my new unit. New neighborhood, new building-mates, new advanced monthly payment and new 2 month deposit.

Just moved about seven blocks from the dreaded dream condo I rented a month ago. Where, my unit was infiltrated by an effing thief. An inside job, I believe. Story here.

Well. it's over, I have literally moved on. No landline phone still. As you know our friendly Globe-Innove takes their time in processing transfer of line/residence.

Thus, no internet connection still. Not even a crappy dial-up connection. But I manage to connect by going down basement/parking of our building. The friendly Security/Admin allows me to use his phone line to connect in short durations.

The facilities are OK. I dropped my dream having a condo unit and settled on a studio unit again. I guess low profile living suits me well rather than indulging in a biggie unit and be a target of crooks. The effing crook thought I got some cash. He doesnt know I am poor man wanting to just have a nice crib. To leave in peace. To blog In peace. I got no cash.

The only negative is, the building is subscribed to Global Destiny Subscription Package. If interested, all tenants need to subscribe to the building admin and you got NO choice but Destiny. That's our destiny!

What are the implication/s of having Destiny? I got NO BTV!!! That's Basketball Television. Solar Sports' all basketball channel. A must-see channel for me! As I sometimes write some basketball thoughts at Hoops.Blink.Ph under the pseudoname, Benhur. Aside from that, I just love the NBA not to have this channel. This sucks!

{To add, I have contacted Global-Destiny and inquired about their Premium Channels but I was informed, they do not have available “box”. I say, just throw and burn all those leaflets offering premium channels if in a year had past, they still don’t have that box. I remember a year ago, I was already looking for that box to get Solar Sports (Solar Sports was not available at that time) along with other “nice channels” including the all-time favorite WOWOW. WOWOW features a special Japok slugfest every Saturday midmight.}

What else? If Globes Broadband service fails me, the option of getting Sky Cable's Broadband is no longer an option. PLDT I go.

But having SKY Cable not available in the building is surely minute compared to having insider-jobbers ready to destroy four locks just to score some things in my unit.

Of Draft Flops and Of Draft Busts

One early morning, slumped in our living room, stuffing donuts to get me filled, I wrote a quick no-research, post-what-I-remember entry about PBA Draft Disappointments. I got a new co-league at Philippines Hoops and he ran the same premise, writing about Philippine Basketball Association's Biggest Draft Flops. But his take is a little polished and researched. He got number baby to back up the list. I only got memories.

Both lists done with no reference to each other and I found that we got 5 common players on our lists. Let me call this, the Least Common Denominator. Emphasis on the word 'least'.

The (un)lucky guys are:

• Apet Jao
• Brixter Encarnacion
• Jason Webb
• Alex Araneta
• Johnedel Cardel

Me and Milenyo: Mother Nature's Sons

Where I’m at, Milenyo is currently unleashing its might.

Right now, I am stuck in my soon to be evacuated condo unit, with no power, landline phone is gone, mobile phone battery charge drained and my laptop has no charge either.

I am all alone. Basically, isolated.

I write this entry while this ultra-powerful storm is battering the Philippines with great power. I have not experienced winds at this velocity (inertia, pressure, momentum, whatever) for a while.

My windows are locked up well but I can still hear it cranking. Though sealed tightly, I can still hear the wind whispering, rather SHOUTING out loud... Can You Hear Me Now?!

Earlier today, my concerns were of business matters, none would interfere with my schedule.

At 9:00am, wind still not that strong, I even lashed out some words via text to my assistant. Saying, to the effect, "We are not kindergarten, we have work today!" (This after she didn’t report for work.)

Not knowing that, probably handful had already perished because of this storm. Not knowing that, around that time, estimated to be 50km away from Makati, our satellite office down south is being pounded hard, winds and rain, by Milenyo.

Not being able to tune in to TV news because of work load made me clueless with what's incoming. Not having my internet news source set at local portals (Yehey! INQ7.net, Philstar.com) made me unaware of the impending/ongoing killer storm.

What was to come was a hard hitting storm, the likes of which I have not seen since I was in gradeschool/highschool.

But my new-but-soon-to-be dropped condo unit is built like a rock having been designed by an American engineer. This fact should make me all the more confident. But, I am not confident at all. Compounded by the fact, that my unit was burglarized some days back. Every crank, every sound, every crash, I am becoming even more restless and checking things out every instance. A little scary now. (Thus I am entertaining myself with this entry.)

Part of what makes me anxious during storm is that, when I was small (and Christmas Trees were tall), I was seriously-dead-scared because our house was swaying like crazy. I may have carried a bit of 'stormophobia' (look that up at wiki) with me now.

My mother and lolo wanted to be cool, they contracted people to build our house, Filipino Nipa Hut themed. Like the ones at Nayong Pilipino. Made up of sewn coconut leaves (pawid) and bamboo skin (sawali), all supported by thinny-winnie-wirey wood. Simply, a huge 'bahay kubo', that is as vulnerable to storm as Paris Hilton is vulnerable to casual sex.

So back then, during Milenyo days, when our house was dancing like J-Lo and the 'pawid' roofing is as messy as my hair, I did call on all the Saints that I can think of and asked for help. I did pray, talked to God and made bunch of pact/promises, in return, I was hoping that God would calm down those killer storms.

I am still alive. I guess God decided to grant my prayers. But boy, did I break lots of promises.

Right now, 1:00pm, September 28, 2006, Milenyo is still kicking ass, still pounding Makati. So I better stop this post and recall all the Saints and start making promises once again.

(Written on a piece of paper, just like the old times.)

Milenyo Storm: What TO-DO List

• If you happen to park in a open field or space, DO cover your black car with something or you'll end up with a 'Dalmatian themed car' in reversed. As leaves, twigs, stems’ sap (dagta) showered and peppered my auto.
• DO stuck up food and make sure you have LPG gas at the instant you learn there is an incoming storm. Else, you'll will end up eating slimey-cold rice, cold canned tuna, cold 'Balot', cold left-overs and last but not awfulest, a Jollibee-Pancit-Palabok Prepared-Without-Decent-H20 supply in the vicinity. Just writing about this makes me like puking.
• Even if your laptop is out of juice, DO make a Blog Entry during the heat (or cold) of the storm and write it on a piece of paper for later typing and posting. (I'll post it after I get back to my unit, it's somewhere out there. I am at Laguna now.)
• Do stock up dozens of flash lights to get you by during 2 to 3 nights of darkness. I had 4 LED flashlights burning the whole time. Just press the thing and walah... let there be light!
• Speaking... Pray!