Finally, Rain!!!

THE RAINMAKER HAS arrived.

It's been almost a week of wet afternoon and it's not even the month of June, yet. I am so eagerly happy. Who is not?

After more than two months of summer season beginning from the month of March, the temperature was so terrible and no one is going to deny that it must be the hottest summer ever to hit this place of the earth.

The concluded Palarong Pambansa held in Koronadal City in the last week of April, has suffered the most painful of effects of the hot sun. A high school principal from Marinduque succumbed to heart attack due to the severity of the temperature which peaked at 36 degrees. Later on, another casualty was reported to have died due to shortness of breath during a parade.

Nonetheless, I guess it's time to buy a new and sturdy umbrella that will withstand the harsh that is the rain. And let us prepare for the revenge of the nimbus clouds and pray that a rebirth of another Milenyo would be aborted.

The Underdog

THERE’S ONE STORY in the Old Testament that I find many parallel in real life stories. It’s a source of inspiration for mismatches. The ultimate validation of the underdogs.What I’m referring to is a story about a small warrior named David who valiantly defeated a giant and ferocious Goliath. It is an epic for the great mismatch of all time, from height to the amount of muscles, from weaponry and crowd boos. The only advantage of David is that the Almighty was on his side. And that made all the difference. It somehow raised his IQ and found the solution to deter his possible demise. David simply identified his enemy’s weakness and wasted no time in assailing it with a single blow from his slingshot.

~photo credits goes to nba.com/Jed Jacobsohn/NBAE/Getty Images~

It is proof to an old Filipino saying, walang malaking nakapupuwing. As I write this, the news about the Golden State Warriors scribling their contribution in the history books by forcing the biggest NBA playoff upset against the Dallas Mavericks, still lingers in my head.

It is a recent example of David-Goliath mismatch, minus the negative or evil implications, of course.

The Mavs has won a league best 67 wins in the 82-game regular season, thus, equating them the highest probability of another trip to the NBA finals. Coupled with predictions of Dirk Nowitzki bagging the title of the Most Valuable Player, indeed, by mere premise, they have an undoubtful chance of a repeat of their last year and winning the elusive NBA championship.

On the other end, the Warriors, badly needed to win their last regular season game, were seeded 8^th place in the playoff standings. Their roster was in disarray coming from several trades and injuries. They were to consider one of the teams you wouldn’t waste an effort nor attention that they would even surpass one game in the first round. Simply put, the team of Baron Davis is unworthy of an opponent and would amount an automatic sweeping of the first four games.

But lo, and behold.

Statistics is a good measure in forecasting games, but can not be always used as premise in determining outcome, just like Steve Kerr when he predicted last year that the San Antonio Spurs will win the NBA championship. Bilog ang bola, ika nga ni Jawo. (The ball is round, according to Jawo a.k.a. Robert Jaworski) Unfortunately, Wade and his Miami Heat squad prove Kerr wrong.

In any competition, I am always thrilled when the underdog becomes the victor in the end. Their stories truly inspire those who view themselves at the same level where defeat in their own struggle is obvious.

Baron Davis was a hero and ignored a hamstring injury. Don Nelson coaches the Warriors, but he was the one who brought the sleeping superstar power of Dirk when he still direct the Mavs plays. This must have let Nelson abuse Mavs weaknesses. What further hurt the Dallas team was the sight of a drained Nowitzki that seemed to have lost all his flair in the regular season and was ineffective most of the games.

The GSW with a much smaller line up compared to the DM, was the third last-placed team that have eliminated a number 1 seed. The same feat was made by the Denver Nuggets when Dikembe Mutombo was still part of that team. They only lost twice in a best of seven series that concluded last May 3, 2007 as compared to the previous records when first round playoff lasted only up to five games. I am sure, it was the perfect moment to be a Golden State Warriors fan.

Another story that truly inspires the low and the powerless has transpired in the concluded elections for gubernatorial in the province where I grew up. A priest with no money, no backing of solid political machinery, and with no capacity at all to launch his own campaign by his own terms has defeated a re-electionist incumbent and a wife of an influential person and alleged drug lord in Pampanga.

Father Ed Panlilio has made the history and record books as the first member of the church to win a seat in the government in what is perceived as a revolution of the province’s governance.
Among Ed as what he is known for, has gain a wide support from the masses, volunteers, businessmen and lawyers to help him in his bid for the seat in the capitol hoping to change the alleged rotten government of my fellow Cabalens.

This has further proved that the power comes from the people and from what Among Ed has been telling them, he will bring forth change for the good of the people.

During the proclamation last week, the euphoria was celebrated by his supporters as the official announcement of Among Ed being the new governor. It was certainly a great moment to be a Kapampangan. Even if I belong to the city of Angeles that never vote for the provincial positions, I am excited and affected of what the future beholds for my fellow Kapampangans.

In any competition, I am always thrilled when the underdog becomes the victor in the end. Their stories truly inspire those who view themselves at the same level where defeat in their own struggle is obvious.

It pumps up the adrenaline of those ready to give up, their dreams and aspirations, their goals when they seemed to be very far and unreachable.

The stories of David, the Golden State Warriors and Among Ed give us hope whenever we are hopeless in our own fights and feel that nothing seems to be going right in our way, to continue and labor to meet our aims.

Lost in the Walls of Intramuros

I TEXTED MY friend Markus for directions. He called back and dictated me the precise routes via jeepney and LRT, since I don’t have a car that I can drive. He is an alma mater of PLM and I thought he was the perfect guy to ask on how to go to Intramuros. And he has proven himself righteous.

Last Sunday, I went there to answer to Jayvee’s blog invitation for a cosplay photo op. Unfortunately, I got lost in the process. He noted in his recent post that if there were a few more photographers who were lost on their way to the venue, I am sure one of them.

Angeles City was my hometown and I currently stay and work in Laguna, so it was almost a perfect opportunity since it'll be my first time to visit the place. I hoisted a jeepney near the Manila City Hall and asked the driver to pull-over at the “roundtable”. Once inside, I busied myself picturing the historic walls and scenery of Intramuros.

Armed with my camera, I started shooting like a crazy gunman in a ground-zero and war-like place.

I strutted and walked further reaching the canyon walls. Heavy sweat was starting to build up. A golf ball from the sky suddenly dropped onto the green grass. I failed to remember that the meeting place was inside the golf course.
An hour later I found myself already too far from where I should be: The Rizal Park.
So I took more shots of where my feet has taken me.

Chatted with Caloy, a park bystander who earns a living through his vintage Konica film SLR.

And captured some kids I'm uncertain I will ever meet again, willing to offer genuine smiles that warm the heart.

The next stop, I was already home.

A Block in a Writer's Path

IT IS A phase that “all” writers have experienced at least once in their entire writing life. It usually happens when he/she faces an imaginary monster. This scary creature bears fangs, huge fingernails, long hair, and red giant poppy eyes when in reality it’s just a plain white background that draws an imaginary fear. It fails the hand to wield the pen or the keyboard with words that makes sense.

I’ve been visited a lot of times by this monster creature as evidenced by the silence in this blog.

Traditionally, this is called the writer’s block. When a writer is suffocated with a white sheet of clean paper and a pen that has suddenly ran out of ink, or the typewriter has just lost control of its mechanical letters being punched away, it is difficult breath and struggle to surpass such stage of nothingness. When a writer thought he/she already knows a lot of things, writer's block disapprove this and he/she suddenly finds him/herself wordless and can’t even forge a set of words that could probably change the world.

Bloggers aren’t spared from this monster creature. They are the writers of the new media but that doesn’t escape them from the state when bloggers are flushed out with all possible ideas that are bloggable. Sometimes when too many ideas pop out of the blue, it fails the blogger to contain the avalanche of concepts falling in and turns out no post is uploaded. It has formed it’s equivalent term – the blogger’s block – but significantly it still carries the same concept of what writer’s block mean.

I’ve been visited a lot of times by this monster creature as evidenced by the silence in this blog. My previous post was about the senatorial candidates who got my vote last election and I wasn’t even able to explain as to why I wrote their names in my ballot. I have three unfinished drafts in my list of posts, and two more activities I’ve involved myself with in the past two weekends - the Pahiyas Festival in Lucban and getting lost in the streets of Intramuros.

One of my technical-support often refers to San Miguel (the beer, not the saint) for inspiration especially in a situation when setting up IT related infrastructure and can’t seem to finish the job. Maybe, I just need the same amount help for me to deal this monster that occasionally appears when faced with a cursor that blinks the fear of filling the white monitor screen with words.

My.Vote

• Sonia Roco
• Zosimo Paredes
• Martin Bautista
• Adrian Sison
• Francis Escudero
• Francis Pangilinan
• Antonio Trillanes IV
  
• Edgardo Angara
• Joker Arroyo
• ?
  
• ?
  
• ?
  

A Glimpse of Poverty

WHAT DOES THIS photo tell you? Straddling along a sidewalk in EDSA-Cubao will greet you a galore of eye-catching scenario such as this.
Together with Pizza, we were on our way to the bus stop when suddenly a woman, whom I thought first was a man, walked past behind me. She was greased all over, thus, earning herself a title of "taong grasa" with her short-pants slightly pulled down and her butt-line slowly peaking out. Slippers are grossed and her hands are dirty. I was about to feel a knot in my stomach, when another person, complemented the scene.
A handicapped with her left arm missing and a tin can in her front inviting passers-by to drop their loose coins.
Time seemed to slow down and I snapped away my cybershot to freeze the scene. What came out was a blurred digital picture of two unfortunate people, in the real sense of the word.
So before you waste the excess food you ordered in a restaurant, better think again. Before even thinking about buying expensive but not necessarily needed things such as your latest jeans when you already had tons of pairs in your closet, you might want to pause and think where your money's going.
It's 5 days come election time, and I wonder what the senator wannabes have to say about poverty, with our country being the most corrupt nation in the world.

Cold Break

I JUST CAME off from a 3 nights and 3 days trip to the hills of Baguio City. I went straight to work at 8 pm last night for evening shift duty after a rear-numbing travel from 7am to 5pm.
Yes, I am tired and exhausted, and all I have at this moment are few of the candid pictures I took, while taking a time out from the extreme hot temperatures of the lowlands.
I miss my bed already.

A Rizza Smile

The Host Himself, Glenn with Dimple

"Plebo"

Session Road Traffic

Fires of Grotto