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Saturday, October 16, 2010

Sweet revenge for the red lions.

Last year, NCAA fans had witnessed the sudden domination of the San Sebastian College-Recolletos Golden Stags and their temporary stoppage of the possible dynasty-era of San Beda College Red Lions in a thrilling 3-game series of the league that had been moved some play dates due to typhoons occurred in the Metro.

As for this season, the Lions had just made a revenge over them and what's even sweeter? They sweep their 16 double-round elimination games and had an outright 1-0 lead just before the finale had just started (is this somehow a quirk to the rules? at first i didn't get the meaning of it at all.)

Their 2 final games result: SBC blowing SSC-R by an average of 17.5 points.
see more: http://ph.promotion.yahoo.com/college-hoops/court-experts-article?blogid=college_hoops&postid=236

It seems MVP had its 2 schools on cloud 9 again. just like the ADMU's blue eagles. Let's see if he could score another personal grand slam again should TnT wins the crown in the PBA

Saturday, October 09, 2010

Just my opinion - Aftermath of an issue: the Manila hostage crisis.

Just my opinion - Aftermath of an issue: the Manila hostage crisis.
By n.d. a.k.a. nestor
10/09/2010
08:33 p.m.
It started from a simple city tour and ended up in the night full of tragedy. It was the entire Monday, August 23, 2010 and the stage was at the Quirino Grandstand in the City of Manila, but this is not a drama. It was action and suspense, in fact. But this time, no stunts or what-so-ever props. It’s plain police versus suspect plot and bullets and bloods are everywhere inside the Hong Thai Travel bus that parked on the road occupying the grandstand. Anyone whom had heard the live feeds on radio and saw on television would have been in different and unexplained emotions at that time. And it all boils down to one finish: a disastrous one. A certain Rolando Mendoza hijacked the bus that contained 20+ Chinese nationals whom were touring Manila for the last day of staying here in the country and killed 9 of them after seeing his brother getting arrested (and Greg actually attempts to resist it but to no avail) by the Manila Police District live on television. And after almost two high-tensed hours, he was killed by the MPD’s SWAT team despite numerous failure attempts.
Since then, Hong Kong can’t help to get thru their national’s emotions but to insult our country for failing to secure the human’s safety. They blacklisted the RP the first thing after the crisis and days later sent an insult letter to President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Then few weeks later, the case was still under investigation through the hearings of Senate. And pointing fingers are shown in any angle of this case.
Well, it’s been some 7 weeks since the tragedy and the issue is hardly seen or heard. But this is just my opinion and the question is: WHO’S TO BLAME? It’s hard to make comments on this though perhaps some of notable choices are.
Primarily the negotiator and this includes the Manila City Vice Mayor Isko Moreno. Well I was wondering why he should put to blame. Maybe because of lapses occurred during the negotiation period and too bad I can’t recall the name of the chief negotiator on the part of Police (since this issue is quite dead already.)
Philippine National Police and Manila Police District. Clearly they should have gone to their trainings better, especially for the people assigned to the Special Weapons and Tactics. No wonder why Filipinos are making fun of them. However, citizens should be blamed too. The police had committed the mistake already, and yet these idiots still make fun of them instead of to feel sorry for the Chinese Nationals. I know there are issues which Filipinos pointed out against Hong, but too bad. It’s not part of the trend anymore. In Filipino saying, “hindi na siya napapanahon.” Ain’t that a bullshit kind?
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim. Since he leads the city is definitely not a valid reason, but leaving during the crime scene is definitely counted there. However, let the guy speak and clear it. The justice (hopefully) should speak for the truth.
National Government and that includes PNoy. They say Aquino had a part of accountability during the hostage drama since he was the head of the state, and the so-called “command responsibility?” well, he apologized though I believe that there’s somebody who should say “sorry” than him.
Media. Another big BLUNDER (or foolish mistake) aside from the police. It is clear though, they cover the entire story out of their possible scoops, agendas and whatsoever. The police failed to keep the distance away from anyone witnessing the crime scene and “crowd control” was totally not present to the scenario. The media should learn to self-regulate. And by regulating means knowing where to delay the live feeds, be sensitive to the issue, delay delivering the news, etc. As simple as that!
However, I will rather think that this fight is over. Let’s move forward and learn from our mistakes committed so that we may be able not to repeat the bad side of history again, even on the different date and event. And please, STOP POINTING FINGERS AND SHOUT ACCUSING NAMES TO THE OTHER.

Foreign artists’ Manila concerts – a threat to OPM?

Foreign artists’ Manila concerts – a threat to OPM?
By n.d. a.k.a. nestor
10/09/2010
10:19 a.m.
Say, it is nice to notice that a lot of foreign music personalities had performed their tours here in the Philippines. You had Beyonce 3 years ago, Maroon 5 and Ne-Yo in their respective performances in 2008, even Katy Perry had done charitable music acts in late ’09. And to notice some icons like Usher in his July concert nearby the Manila Bay, Jay Sean rocking the Big Dome last Sept. 3 and so was the 90s Boyz II Men weeks before; Flo-Rida, Sean Kingston as 2 of the supahfest which features 4 artists in 1 night concert. John Mayer some few weeks ago (after postponing his concert that should had been done by May) and Adam Lambert performing tomorrow night, David Foster’s crew in sometime November, 90s alternative rock act Gin Blossoms in the same month, and many more perhaps that I had forgotten to mention (after all, they’re to many like those rock bands which had took airplay in the 90s and early 2000s). And hey, not to mention the emergence of K-Pop bands here.

Well, it’s good for their respective names and records to reach out as far as the pearl of the orient country like ours. You see people buying tickets despite its skyrocketing rates, rushing to the designated venue and just enjoying the night even if you’re a hundred feet (or even more like a bunch of rows of seats) away from them. However, it will have an effect to the local music industry, though it appears like it’s just a bit. Who cares about our very own Charice if she’s assigned in the States anyway?
Well, we still should be proud that we got a young Filipina out there making her name to the international music industry, alongside Journey’s Arnel Pineda and the Black Eyed Peas’ Allan Pineda Lindo or apl.de.ap (no relation to the rock star’s surname anyway) . However, with people purchasing alien music more than our very own, it’s not hard to see why OPM right now is not totally a successful one. Even if you try to check the hits in the website of a video-sharing community named YouTube. And don’t just blame it to the fact that people doesn’t signed up an account with that website. These acts don’t receive much airplay on the radio like the way it was before. And if you don’t believe me, try comparing the times of the mid 2000s to nowadays. This was the time where OPM rock bands got most of the slots on music charts (even outscoring the foreigners’ regardless if it’s rock or rap) like ex-Mojofly’s front woman Kitchie Nadal, Ebe Dancel’s Sugarfree, Sandwich (regardless if Marc Abaya’s running the vocals or Raimund Marasigan that time) to the even pogi rock bands like Hale, Cueshe, to name the few of them. And by the way, I am pertaining to the Contemporary Hit Radio (CHR) format stations since the masa-type of radio stations do play OPM for most (and even more songs than them, not bad though on their part though) and not to mention the pop/rhythm and blues group like South Border joining the trend alongside the rap group Dice and K9.
Nowadays, it is like a hell out shit. Though I’m not blaming the man of CHR type of radio stations anyway. It’s just not all people will appreciate our local music much like those days anymore. And I think we should give our ears a little time to hear them before our alien mentality totally put the shit in our brains.

And I don’t know if I get that right… that PNoy had ordered the KBP whom ordered all the radio stations to play at least some OPM songs per hour of broadcast. I’ll say it’s a nice move to hear our local acts once again. (pardon me if I didn’t though)

Remembering The Onslaught (Part 1)

10/09/2010 11:33 AM

It’s been exactly 54 weeks since a tropical storm ravaged the island of Luzon and caused devastation on almost (if not all) every resident of Metropolitan Manila and nearby provinces such as Bulacan, Pampanga, Quezon, Laguna, Cavite and Rizal. 

In fact, Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) was held accountable for at least 710 casualties and 11 billion pesos in damages to property as it crossed the island Luzon, including the nation’s capital. 

It happened after a massive rainfall on 25 September 2009 that has been unstoppable overnight and lasted 'til late evening of September 26. As part of the millions of victims who already told their stories—through personal or social media—here is my share of witnessing the catastrophic day. After all, who would ever think that a tropical storm like that would cause massive flash floods and overflowing the waterways such as the Marikina and Pasig Rivers?