Druggista

Miami Heat are the 2006 NBA Champions! Congratulations to the team, to Dwayne Wade (Finals MVP), to Shaq (fourth ring) and most especially to ‘Zo Mourning, who finally got a ring after 14 years. He returned to the NBA after undergoing a kidney surgery and is truly a living testament to perseverance and determination.  He was relegated to a bench player during his stint with the Nets because people said he was too old and too slow after the surgery.  But during Game 6 of the NBA Finals and at what would be his defining moment, ‘Zo scored 8 points, grabbed 6 rebounds and rejected 5 shots, the most important one coming in the fourth quarter over Howard, which stymied the Mavs comeback. Now, look at where is now.  He’s holding the James Naismith trophy, smiling from ear to ear.  I can only say one thing: Hardwork truly pays off!  Enjoy this one ‘Zo, you truly deserve it!

Today is an ominous day in terms of symbolism.  It is the 6th day of the 6th month of the 6th year after the second millenia.  6/6/06 indeed has a plethora of symbolism associated with it.  For Christians, this number rings a scary bell, for this is the mark of the beast mentioned in the book of Revelations or more popularly known as the number of the Antichrist.  Supposedly, nothing in Revelations should be taken literally; (there are verses depicting a red dragon with seven heads, a beast with ten horns and a leopard that had feet of a bear and a mouth of a lion) because it would certainly not be a realistic doomsday scenario, but would look like a movie produced by overly-creative graphic artists that would rival adventure/fantasy flicks such as Lord of the Rings and Narnia.  But as it is with human nature and idleness, various events are associated with symbols and abstract contexts.  One good example, is this phenomenon called the "Da Vinci Code".  This much-hyped but pathetically disappointing movie is the brainchild of infamous fiction author Dan Brown.  The story is riddled with misinterpreted symbols and inaccurate historical reviews.  Now, I don’t want to be another critic of Dan Brown proclaiming his work as blasphemous ‘coz its already very much nauseating. I just want to point out the unlimited creativity of the human mind when stimulated with symbolisms.  It is amazing how the human mind can correlate a certain symbol to an event.  In fact, this is what fictional writers are constantly developing: their imagination.  Of course, the end-product of this imaginative odyssey offers a great read.   But it should only be utilized as such form of entertainment and not as a basis of principle and spirituality, for when critically examined, an expert can almost certainly find an error in every angle.  I want to get back to my topic because I’m sounding like a Dan Brown-critic already.  The symbolic sequence of numbers of the date today is seen as a sign of misfortune or bad omen in the Western world. (or the "early Christians" - this includes North Americans, British, and the Europeans because they were among the first to be Christianized, however today it is more of an irony because their culture is starting to accept double-standards in their faiths, resulting to empty pews in their magnificently built Churches.)  Today is such an ominous day for Americans that CNN reported a certain mother who induced her labor yesterday just to prevent her son from getting a 666 date for a birthday.  People are so afraid of being associated with anything evil, but are unaware of their own shortcomings and notoriety.  Anyway, I was really amazed of the mother’s decision, that she would do something like that.  To think that her baby’s life could have been affected.  Her actions were certainly drastic even close to desperate.  I also saw the trailer for the remake of "The Omen".  This movie is about the birth of the Antichrist and Armageddon and had four sequels in the past.  The movie could not have been timed more perfectly as the producers decided to release it on this ominous day in this side of the world.  As I switched to another channel, I came across the daily evening news of Channel News Asia (Singapore).  What an irony indeed!  In the other side of the world, people are scrambling to get married to the extent that mass weddings were held.  Everybody was rushing to get married in Taiwan, Hongkong and some parts of China.  The Chinese view the number 6 as a lucky number and so a date that offers a triple 6 offers more-than-usual luck, happiness and wealth.  What a contrast indeed.  For such simple symbols as numbers, there are differing even contrasting interpretations for different kinds of people.  As I turned off the TV, I realized that in this world, there simply is no clear line between the good and the evil.  The protagonist and the antagonist.  The Pro’s and the Con’s.  The Left and the Right. There’s always two sides in a story.  Two sides in an argument.  Two sides in life.  It all depends on your perspective.  It all depends on where you’re standing.  And most importantly, it all depends on what you believe in.  For at the end of the day, we are all the same, we are all humans, we are all imperfect — erring, naive and arrogant.  So choose your side…

"…even the best fall down sometimes,

even the wrong words seem to rhyme,

out of the doubt that fills my mind,

you finally find, you and i collide. "

Praise the Lord! This is the day that the Lord hath made.  We will rejoice and be glad in it.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Lord!  Also, I cannot give out enough "thank you’s" to all the people who have been diligently praying for me. You know who you all are.  Always remember that the World may be unfair sometimes, but God is good all the time.   Just give out your best in everything you do. 

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.  It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."  William Jennings Bryan

As with all abstract writings, I shall try to connect the things I have mentioned in the title.  To make it even more challenging, I shall connect these four elements in a single sentence at the end of this blog.  Yes, these four are interconnected as far as last night was concerned.  Last night was really weird.  I got home around 7 pm and noticed that there were gazillions of winged-termites hovering around a halogen bulb outside the premises of our house.  (my colleague informed me just as I am typing this blog, that these are actually termites that are in their final stage of life cycle.  No wonder they don’t last till the following day.)  Around three days ago, my acceptance letter for postgraduate studies arrived.  It was delivered by DHL all wrapped up in bubble wraps.  Oh vanity!  What a waste of resources! Imagine enclosing a single envelope containing a single letter inside a brown-envelope sized package with bubble wraps all around.  Well who am I to complain, I guess that’s part of what you pay for express mail.  And the best thing is: I get to pop the bubble wraps after! hehe… 

Now for the correlations.  My siblings have always been complaining about the lizards and ants in our house.  They are all over the place!  I was musing that the lizards should have controlled the ants’ population (by the way, how do you control lizard population?) but apparently, the ants are simply too much to handle even for this insect-starved gecko-sounding lizards.  The lizards though are starting to get annoying.  They make this gecko-like sound with the snap of their tails all the time.  I mean I’ve been awaken by this sound during the wee hours of the morning.  Talk about a bugging alarm clock.  Plus, I always have this bad feeling that these lizards might one day fall off from the ceiling and straight into my face or even worse into my gaping mouth while am sleeping!!!  Well last night brought all these elements together.  And at last they all made sense.  With the end-of-life-cycle-stage termite invasion, I was hard-pressed to find a solution to quickly eradicate them lest they invade our rooms.  My good ‘ol pop suggested the ancient technique of putting water in a basin and then raising it up near the lights so as to make the termites drown into the water.  Well, that technique worked for a while, like 10 seconds, because before long the damn termites were crawling all over my face, arms and body (imagine a scene in fear factor where they have to endure creepy crawlies all over their bodies).  I had to rethink my strategy and I had to do it fast coz I had to fax my postgrad application that night and they were all over the office where the fax machine sat.  Talk about bad timing.  Then I thought of a brilliant idea.  Instead of me drawing the water close to them, why not make them draw closer to the water.  How?  By putting the basin below a low-hanging fluorescent lamp while switching off all the other lights.  Waalaaaa!!! And like magic the pestering termites were all concentrated in one area.  I was so happy that I was able to conquer a whole battalion of devil-may-care termites that night.  As I was watched them dive randomly into the basin of water, I can’t help but notice that I wasn’t the only one enjoying the scene.  Apparently, all the annoying lizards were also feasting on this rare termite buffet.  They were all over the walls, crawling and snatching as many termites as possible.  So that’s what the lizards were for.  To wait for this fateful day to happen, and show their worth.  Thanks my reptilian friends, for without your help maybe we could not have eliminated the termites that fast.  Now lastly the ants.  Not all of the termites drowned in the deadly basin of water.  Some of them simply fell to the ground.  And like an army of coordinated force and strategy, the ants came out marching!  They devoured all termites that fell to the ground - with or without wings, dead or alive.  Talk about scavenging!  Because of the coordinated efforts of the lizards and ants, the pesky winged-termites were easily eliminated and I was finally able to fax my application.  But this is not the end of the story as far as my postgrad application is concerned.  But this is something I would like to talk about the next time around… 

                                                                                                                                                                                             Big blind, small blind and the dealer button.  The flop, the turn and the river.  And the most important thing of all: the chips.  Boy, this game is fast becoming our favorite pastime.  This started when Solar Entertainment began airing the Celebrity Poker game.   I thought I was the only one hooked to this show, funny thing was all of my friends have been religiously watching the show too!  At first, the game was boring, watching 6 players battle it out; winning and losing chips, until only one player remains.  But after a while, the game suddenly becomes addicting.  All the mind games going on the table, the bluffs, and the different strategies players do just to make their opponents more vulnerable and transparent. Truly, it is not the game per se , but it is the interaction with other players that makes this game so damn entertaining! The false pretenses and the funny faces they make and all their vain efforts just to conceal what really is in their hand.  After a few weeks, when enough "watch & learn" episodes had been accomplished, we decided to bring the game to the table!  By the suggestion of one of my good buddies, we started playing poker in Gloria Jean’s.  Thanks to their hospitable staff, they allowed us to play until the wee hours though we were quite raucous and rowdy.  The game is  really catching on, and soon we have to find a bigger and homier venue for our succeeding games or we may get blacklisted in Gloria Jean’s.  Til next time poker fans… Shuffle up and deal!!!

We live our lives in such haste that we don’t notice the beautiful and essential things that happen in between.  We work, sleep, eat and sleep everyday.  And yet it seems that people are unwilling to take a minute out of their lives to focus on things that don’t involve those routinary tasks.  If we can just learn how to live our lives more consciously, I certainly believe that we will be living more meaningfully.  So much is happening in between.  There are lots of important things left unnoticed or unaccomplished simply because we are too busy or too tired.  I have to admit though that the only way to experience this phenomenon is to quit your job.  Right now, this is what I’m experiencing.  Not that I am brandishly proclaiming my being a bum; once you learn to distance yourself from all those monotonous and unfullfilling tasks, you will view life in a totally different manner.  I once consoled myself jokingly that being a bum does have its benefits.  I am not advising everyone to quit their jobs, (for those who are enjoying their jobs, I could not be more happier for you) rather take a break from it and try to re-assess your life.  Most of us keep on digging on the soil, without noticing that the seasons have already changed four-folds.  Where are you going?  Has it been fullfilling in anyway?  These two questions are very important, for no matter how successful and rich you may be, if you aren’t sure how to answer those two questions above, then it was just a waste of time.  A waste of precious time where you could have explored other oppurtunities.  Oppurtunities which could have afforded you a better lifestyle.  Where you could have spent it with your loved ones in a big dinner party.  Where you could have used the time to help others who are in dire need.  Where you could have done the things in your got-to-do-things-before-i-die list like: sky dive from 30,000 feet above, scuba dive in Tubbatahha reef, climb to the peak of Mt. Apo, surf in the waves of Siargao, visit places with stunning natural landscape beauty like New Zealand (LOTR scenes), Brazil (the Amazon rainforest), and Austria (Swiss Alps).  Where you could have lived your life to the fullest.  But never mind, regret no more, for the damage has already been done.  Those things are indeed only good for imagination.  We have to be practical most of the times, work provides us with money for food on the table and clothes to wear.  But also keep in mind that life is short.  We should learn to live day-to-day, in this way we can start to live it right.  See things with more focus and detail.  Listen to words with more comprehension.  Speak with more sincerity and honesty. And doing things with more passion and enthusiasm.  Life is all happening in a flash.  Like a Kodak moment, once that moment’s gone it’s gone forever, but if you capture it in a picture, you can relive it whenever you see the picture.  Life is all happening in your midst.  But you were unable to notice it because you were doing something.   Life is all happening in spite of your hardships, depression, problems, heartbreaks, and failures.  It is always happening regardless.  It is Life itself that is in-between everything.  Don’t let it slip away.

Wow! Unbelievable! I’m not an avid fan of Kobe Bryant; in fact I personally find his scoring feats a bit too chauvunistic, but his performance against the Raptors definitely deserves some kudos.  Imagine scoring 81 of your team’s 122 points?  Even MJ during his glory days couldn’t pour in such a barrage.  I guess this Kobe guy really has it goin’ this season.  He’s scored 40 or more points in 5 straight games this season.  He’s also scored 62 against Dallas.  And now 81! But all this Kobe-mania is not doing the Lakers any good at all come playoff time.  Ask any basketball analyst, and he will tell you that no one-man team has ever made it through to the finals.  Come playoff time, Kobe’s teammates will be like lame ducks if Kobe sticks to his ball-hugging habits.  Though the Lakers are doing quite well in the past few weeks, they’re still only 7th place in the Western Conference.  I know for one that Mr. Phil Jackson is not smiling whenever Kobe scores in such audacity.   His much-praised triangle offense will cease to be a factor if Kobe gets to shoot 80% of the time.  Sun-Star sports columnist Homer Sayson, who had the privilege to watch the Pacquiao vs Morales rematch at ringside, also got credentialed for this historic game (I envy your job man,  I hope someday I can do the things you’re doing now.) He commented on Kobe’s selfishness and on making the game as boring and dull as a nintendo computer game.  Although many didn’t exactly like what Kobe did, as sports fans we must give him the respect he deserves.  After all, scoring 81 is not child’s play.  To appreciate this historic basketball game, take a look at the table below on the list of the top ten NBA scoring greats.  Bryant’s 81 is only behind Chamberlain’s magnificent 100, but take note that this feat was done way back in 1962 when the game was still burgeoning. 

Bets anyone?  The whole country is geared up for the biggest fight of the year tomorrow.  Whether you are a boxing fan or not, January 22 will definitely be a Boxing Day for the Philippines.  Arguably being one of the most famous sports icon today, Manny Pacquiao has certainly achieved a superstar status in this country and most especially in his hometown of General Santos.  His fans come from different walks of life: drivers (of tricycle, trisikad, jeepney, taxi, v-hire, fx, bus and even habal-habal) , fruit vendors, the istambays in your street, workers, and even big bosses and senators are all yearning for the Pacman to win.  A few of the ultra-rich like our scum-lying senators, have personally made the trip to Las Vegas (at their own expenses kuno!) to shout out their support.  Well whether win or lose, I believe that nobody will go home a loser.  Pacquiao will still bag around US$ 2 million of purse aside from the countless endorsements. (did you know that Pacquiao already has his own of clothing line and has just released an album under Star Records)  The businessmen will also certainly be happy coz they will be raking in money from the pay-per-view’s like the one in SM cinemas all over the country where the tickets are all sold out at P300/piece.  As for the Filipino people, what better way of spending a Sunday than staying glued to the tv for some top-rank, hard hitting and high quality boxing.  Win or lose, Pacquiao vs Morales dubbed as the Battle, will be a welcome entertainment and a nice respite from the everyday struggles of daily living for the average Filipino.  After all, all work and no play is totally missing the point right?  So, bets anyone? 

FYI : Pacquiao is a 120 to 110 favorite over Morales in the betting boards of Vegas. 

Fearless Prediction:  Morales will win the fight.  For Pacquiao to win, he must get lucky with his strong left but I think it’s slim.  Morales 75%, Pacquiao 25%

Yeah, just got mine extracted a few days ago before New Year’s Eve.  While the dentist was drilling and cutting away my impacted molar, I kept on thinking to myself: "What on earth is the wisdom tooth for anyway?"  If mankind has evolved so much per Darwin’s theory of evolution, why hasn’t nature blocked the growth of such inutile accesories?  One time, a preacher was telling the congregation about the greatness of God’s creations, that not one part was created without a particular purpose.  He then proceeded to ask the congregation of things which they think has no purpose in life.  One man stood up and shouted: the appendix! The preacher smiled and casually explained that the appendix does have a purpose, for when one undergoes appendectomy, he/she can no longer be considered to be an astronaut.  He explains that the appendix is concerned somewhat with our equilibrium, without it astronauts in zero gravity space will have a hard balancing act.  Then he challenged the congregation again to a useless part of the body.  There were many parts/organs shouted out, but all of them were answered.  ‘Cept for one which a friend of mine shouted, "Wisdom tooth!"  Apparently, he also just recently had his extracted.  My friends (of around the same ages) were all amused with the suggestion ‘coz most probably they also have shared the same dilemma with me now.  So what is a wisdom tooth for?  My dentist told me after the nerve-wracking procedure that basically the last molars are of no use.  So why are they put there, just to be extracted later.  Another corollary question could be that how come our parents and grandparents never had to experience such agony.   My  dentist friend offered  one possible  solution to my second question, he said that quite possibly because dental care before wasn’t that good, people were more prone to dental caries and decay.  Therefore, most of them had their second or third molars extracted for decay, leaving space for the wisdom tooth.  This answer could possibly be true coz both my parents have quite a number of teeth extracted. (hehe no offense mom and pop)  But still, my initial question persists.  I’m sure that God meant for all our teeth to be strong, pearly white and decay-free, so why are so many youngsters afficted with this impacted phenomenon?  I hope there would be someone out there who could offer me an answer to my question.  Anyone who chance upon this blog can simply write your answer in my comments box.  Thank you. I’m hoping to hear the answers soon coz I still have another two sets of impacted teeth to be extracted.   At least I’ll get the answers while I still have ‘em.