in focus (recap)...

the 17-day event has reached its end and athens bade goodbye to the athletes and visitors, formally closing out the 2004 edition of the olympic games.

before finally leaving athens and start preparing for beijing 2008, here's a recap of "in focus".

>1. the rp team's quest for the gold.
no gold, no medal. another fruitless medal campaign and a continuing wake up call for the country. despite a not so good performance, still my hand salute to the athletes and coaches.

>2. us men's basketball team.
a disappointing bronze medal for a team full of nba stars. a dream team every one thought of its invulnerability and dominance was beaten twice in the eliminations before bowing to argentina in the semifinals. luckily, they've managed to edge out lithuania in the bronze medal match escaping a more dismal outcome. it was never a walk in the park but rather a long rough journey almost ended in vain.

argentina took the gold medal by trouncing italy in the finals.

>3. japan's baseball team.
it was predicted as cuba vs. japan for the gold medal match just before the quarterfinals. but australia beat japan in the semis denying their bid for the gold.

cuba blasted australia for the gold. japan settled for the bronze.

>4. ian thorpe and kosuke kitajima.
thorpe won two golds - 200m and 400m freestyle. he is third in 100m freestyle. thorpe is still the best middle-range freestyler in the world.

kitajima took gold in both of his 100m and 200m breaststroke events. now japan's first swimmer to have won two golds in the olympics.

in addition, michael phelps of the us took 8 medals. 6 of them are gold. won both gold in 100m and 200m butterfly. phelps challenged ian thorpe in 200m freestyle but outlasted by the thorpedo, finishing third for the bronze.

phelps was trying to match or even break the record set by mark spitz of seven golds in 1972 munich olympic games but came short. maybe in 2008.

>5. japan women's volleyball team.
not enough for a podium. japan made it to the quarterfinals but the brazilians show them the exit so quickly. powerhouse china came from a two-set deficit before finally thrashing russia in the finals for the gold. cuba took the bronze.

>6. tennis.
no roddick vs. federer in athens olympics men's singles finals. not even in the quarterfinals. federer lost as early as the second round of the tournament. the following day, roddick tumbled.

nicolas massu of chile took the gold.
world ranked no. 1 justine henin-hardenne of belgium won the gold in the women's singles.

last night...

the scene: bin will take out the garbage, he asked me to look out for him from the balcony [this i don't get hehehe maybe something to do with paranoia?:D ]...

'okidoks' i said. seeing him using the elevator, going to the dumpsite, smiling to me as he heads for the lift when he returned, a "brilliant" idea came to mind. you see, he is always a step ahead of me... always. many times i was contemplating of doing something but turned out he has already done or prepared for it. be it something essential or practical jokes i so prepared. he always beats me.

so that time i made sure that i'll pull it off. i planned my very elementary-ish joke. i'll hide in the dark when he gets out of the lift on his return and use my scariest voice and call out his name. yep, i was convinced that this will make his heart jump, bad noh?

i knew i positioned myself well. i had no shadow that will betray me hiding just beside the lift. i even saw it ascended ... 2,3,4... i held my breath, ready for action... that's when i heard him call me from behind!

oh yes! i can't describe what i felt... it was like pouring ice cold water over my head... oh yes! my practical joke boomeranged. he knew i hid somewhere so he decided to take the stairs. he was laughing at how i looked. to him, i seemed like a soldier ready for combat!!geeessshhh...

but you know what the sweet thing was, he took seconds first to decide how to call me... he knows i'm so magugulatin... that even he had the sweet chance to scare the hell out of me he just chose not to... he called my name in his softest voice :D

he's so unlike me... that still after that, continues on planning for revenge hahaha... kaya bin, humanda ka! :D

arigatous...

celebrating birthdays in-style here in japan means preparing food, usually dinner, for every filipino friends around. simple the event may sound but definitely not to the one who'll be preparing everything, in most cases, the celebrant. so when it was me who had to do the job, i made sure i enlisted my friends' help before i hit the kitchen. :)

our preparation started way too late. i planned it to be early, really... but as what should be expected from our usual fridays, the supposedly early morning gising for that saturday [dday] turned to be 1230pm! so just imagine my panic attack since i told everybody that dinner will be served by 7 and that barely two hours before our grocery time i still couldn't decide what to prepare :O good thing, jo, bin and che's minds become creative when it comes to food, my initial plan of two-course meal became five!:D

since drew's place is huge [compare it to our's it is definitely huge], it is always the default choice for venue of all higashi celebrants. i know he should be asking for venue fee but bless the goodness of his heart [naks sipsip! sa uulitin!], he doesn't and cooks for the celebrant pa! so there in shonandai we peeled potatoes and carrots, chopped onions and garlic, talop-ed the pina, diced the mangoes as fast and as skillful as we could. :D

to these great people who made my bday feast possible... jo and che for the refreshing icy fruity delight...drew for his first yummy maja...bin for the crispy tilapya...che for the vegetable soup and jo again for the chicken jo :P...my big doumo arigatou goes out for you guys!!!

as for those who did not have the chance to attend... here's something to make you drool... :D










--------------------------------
ps. special thanks din to the hugas-pinggan barkada... it was a lot easier with you :D

birds of prey...

the falcons had a good pre-season billing - a strong contender for the final four and the dark horse of this year's uaap men's basketball. living up to the expectation, they surged immediately into the standings with 3-1 win-loss record and occupied the second spot just behind ateneo with a 4-0 slate. they've even clobbered the archers during that stretch.

but as the season continues, things changed for the falcons. that bird of prey turned into a fowl that flaps its wings haplessly, dropping successive games and now find themselves so close to that familiar spot - the cellar.

the eagles on the other hand continued soaring. despite the fall of one of their main men - larry fonacier, they managed to fill up the void, made a good grip of the top spot and still keep on gliding.

whether the falcons' early performance is a fluke or not, it is still yet to be proven though. five more games remaining and there is still a chance. perhaps, the odds are even bigger than the rp contingents' hopes for a gold medal in athens. coach luigi trillo's boys need a lot, i mean, lots and lots of hard work to end the almost 3-decade of championship title drought.

i still believe they can make it to the final four. as for the crown, well, nothing is impossible.

note:
the last time the falcons won the men's basketball crown was in 1977, when hector "the director" calma was orchestrating the plays on the court.

in focus...

the flame has finally arrived to athens and the 2004 olympics is now officially started. so sad that local channels here won't probably air some games i want to watch. i'll just catch them in the morning news and of course, the internet.

here are some events and moments one (or i) should not miss.

1. the rp team's quest for the gold.
can we finally bring home a gold this time? with only few of our athletes (16 if i am not mistaken) managed to qualify, chance is small yet not impossible though. high hopes to our boxers and taekwondo jins. so sad that billiards is still missing in action. pocketing a gold would then be much easier with a bunch of cue masters we have.

2. us men's basketball team.
the 1992 dream team with jordan, bird, johnson among other superstars started the gold harvest of the us squad. that strength continued until the sydney olympics. will this be another walk in the park?

3. japan's baseball team.
with no godzilla and ichiro in the lineup, the team has to fill up that two big holes to stand abreast with baseball powerhouse cuba. hideki matsui and ichiro are playing in the mlb and were not allowed by their ballclubs due to the ongoing mlb season. united states did not qualify to the olympics. well, probably because mlb players were not in the team.

4. ian thorpe and kosuke kitajima.
can they shatter olympic records? watch them swim ala donita.

5. japan women's volleyball team.
with takeshita orchestrating the offense of the group with full of young talents and experienced ones, can they crash the wall of china, overpower brazil and outspeed the quickness of cuba? not counting out russia and italy though.

6. tennis.
will there be another federer vs. roddick in tennis men's singles finals?

catch them all here.

so, let the games begin!

the ring...

not the boxers' ground, it's the thing that's round
the sparkling,lovely band but not the scary one
it doesn't rule nor harm only the iron that binds
readying two people to become one.

earth to rish...

i've been slacking off on this, and people are starting to notice, bad. unless, we can all consider a song i posted earlier a valid post...can't we? :P

my mind's a total mess these days,... er at least when it comes to blogging. i cannot complete any of the drafts i started. hmmmm, i hope it's not the blogging spirit starting to wane on me. :(

ok, just so to make it a little easier, i'll share what i have been doing these past few [not quite, i know] days. aside from work, let's see...

- [a good way to start hehehe...] i've been studying for exams... or should i say cramming, old habits die hard. one is nihonggo and the other one, well, i refuse to tell. i'll just blog about it [maybe] when i pass. :P

- watched two movies. itsybitsy spidey with bin and shrek 2 with bin and 9 other ogre-adoring people:) spidey 2 was ok to me. now, i'm convinced that only tobey can give justice to this webby character. i just can't imagine any of the actors i know who can play a loser and a hero at the same time. :) bin and i liked this better than the first. probably this has a lot to do with the villain[not-so] doc ock [btw, side-kwento, i have heard of antimatter twice in a week, from this and a book by brown, timing!], as for kirsten we find her more stunning before... in bring it on hehe. shrek 2? we just love love love it!

- i have also been to a friend's bday party... she turned 28 [i think i'd better stop right there :) ]

- i've also been trying to read three books at the same time... emphasis on trying:p ... catcher in the rye, which i love but cant seem to finish :( the first of the shopaholic series [well, i'm proud i'm still miles away when compared to becky's spending habits!] and angels and demons that keeps me awake til 2 am!

- went to the dentist for a root-canal... another activity my lazy-self managed to put off for 2 months, yaiks! urgh, dental care in japan doesn't come cheap! i paid 5k+ yen for my first visit for this one [expletive] tooth [w/ houken pa yan ha!] and i still need to go back at least 3 times pa. :O partly it's my fault that i'm spending this HUGE [it's huge to me considering my current financial situation hehe], the root canal procedure was started last may pa but they have to start again because i didn't set an appointment at least a month earlier than last sat. tsktsktsk... [good thing, ma can't read this:P] but still, ndi makatarungan ang singil! i wonder if they have DTI here? :P

- went to torihama with bin for a little dose of shopping then took a side trip to sea paradise. there i celebrated three years of partnership and continued service to the filipino people with bin :)

so there, plus probably some more shopping, dinner out with bin and friends, bumming around in higashi, losing nisenyen in pusoy dos ... all that and planning my life in between. :)