525,600 minutes

It has been a year since I started sharing my small flat world.

Purple and Gold

It was a seven-year wait but it was worth it. The Larry O’Brien trophy has finally returned to LA. For the past weeks, my mornings, every other day, were spent hanging on to every play by play update in Yahoo Sports or the faster ESPN Gamecast.

Much has been said about the anticipated LeBron and Kobe match-up in the finals, and to the dismay of the swoosh company, that dream or nightmare face-off did not materialize. Instead a Disney Series took place. It was LA versus Orlando. And the Grumpy-led Lakers won in 5. They say that this is one of the closest finals with two games going to overtime. It was really close with crucial Game 4 decided on the last few seconds.

The recently concluded NBA finals may not have been up in the ratings chart but I have never been this glued to ESPN since Luke was a rookie.

Finally, a parade in LA.

Oh, Obama just called Phil.

I miss the playoffs already.

Beam Me Up Scotty!

I was 11 years old when I memorized the opening spiel of the Star Trek series. And I felt a tinge of sadness every time I see Gene Roddenberry’s name. It meant it was the end of the episode.

I forgot this chapter of my life until I watched Big Bang Theory and the latest installment of the Star Trek franchise. Then I was reminded of my own fascination to this cult series.

If only I can go back to the time where my concerns were as relevant as what shows to watch and what cassette tape to buy…… To a place where every man has gone before but must depart from…. to venture into the unknown….

Space, the final frontier

These are the voyages of the Starship, Enterprise

Its continuing (?) mission

To explore strange new worlds

To seek out new lives and new civilizations

To boldly go where no man has gone before

Criminal Minds

For quite some time now, Noe and Jerry have been telling me to catch the series, Criminal Minds. I haven’t seen a full episode until today. And this particular episode led me to these lines in William Woodsworth's poem "Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood":

What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind...

Lovin' My Own

I'm a sucker for any article about the Philippines, Manila, any place from Luzon, Visayas or Mindanao, written by an outsider. And chancing upon this article in CNN entitled "Make the most of Manila's chaotic charm" made my day.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/06/05/24.manila/index.html

And here are some images of Makati through my eyes.

an underpass in Makati

at the heart of the Makati central business district

Makati, as seen from Antipolo

Makati, as seen from the 40th floor

Makati at night

Makati street on a Sunday

Mines of Moria

Freedom to choose. Isn't it such joy that we can choose from the simplest.... what we want to eat for dinner, where we want to hang out tonight, what we want to watch? To the complicated.... what we want to eat for dinner, where we want to hang out tonight, what we want to watch? Seriously, we can exercise our freedom to choose in life's most complicated conundrums.

And yet most of the time life throws at us circumstances that seem to take away our freedom to choose. Situations that put you in a corner where there seems to be no options. And yet the best way out of it is not going over it and skipping it all altogether but getting through it.

In the Lord of the Rings trilogy, when the fellowship was still at the start of their journey, they were supposed to go over (not through) the Mines of Moria but there were harsh cold conditions above, so they had no choice but to go through the mines.


Sometimes our journey feels like we are wandering aimlessly.....and yet God in his infinite wisdom tells us..... Be still and know that I am God. And amidst the chaos, a hand reaches out to us as if saying we can still choose, but we just have to let His hand guide us.

And if going through the mines will refine us, so be it. We are all works in progress and we all need to go through our own mines, whether we like it or not.

Voyage of the Balangay

As a kid, I loved reading those inspiring stories’ section in Reader’s Digest. Those heartwarming tales of the human spirit and how it triumphs amidst adversities, made me believe that anything is possible. The story of the first Pinays who went up Mt. Everest is one of those stories. The same team which scaled the highest peak on this planet has set forth on another epic journey, Voyage of the Balangay. Here’s a link to the next project which should make every Filipino proud.

http://sports.inquirer.net/breakingnews/breakingnews/view/20081204-176131/Pinoy-Everest-team-to-sail-to-Madagascar