LA Lakers NBA 2010 Champions

Congratulations to Kobe Bryant and the rest of the LA Lakers team for this year's championship. The team showed mental and physical toughness to beat the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of this years Finals. Although I am not a Kobe fan, it is still fun to watch the two teams play hard with each other and give their best for the final game this season. Kobe's fifth ring and Phil Jackson's 11th championship proves that they are indeed exceptional and future Hall of Famers for the Lakers franchise.

I also give full credit to Boston for extending the series to a 7th game where I predicted that the Lakers will win in 5 or 6 games. I was disappointed for Boston's loss since I am a Garnett fan but it was entertaining to watch Boston beat Cleveland and Orlando to meet LA. It is a shame that Boston will not be the same anymore by next season since coach Doc Rivers future with the team is uncertain. Ray Allen will join the free agent and Rasheed Wallace will retire. Anyway, Boston needs new faces and young players to complement or substitute the veterans such as Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Rajon Rondo definitely needs more young legs to complement his speed and precision and to match young NBA teams who will definitely playoffs contender next season.

The NBA Finals is over and the whole world is now watching the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The world cup is the most watched sport in the whole world and I remember last World Cup where even F1 drivers were watching the match during their rest periods of the F1 race. One driver even said that Formula 1 racing is their work but football is their passion. Let us see which nations will qualify for the semifinals and the championship this year. Will Argentina, Brazil or Germany win this year or will there be a major upset among favorites? Let us just wait and see....

NBA Finals 2010 Lakers VS Celtics

NBA 2010 Finals is just around the corner. Two great teams and franchises will meet again after 2 years and their renewed rivalry will be the most anticipated factor to this year's championship. It is not easy to forget how the Boston Celtics crushed Kobe's championship goal 2 years ago but the Lakers are a very different and focused team this year. Plus they have a score to settle. The news that the Lakers bus was humiliated at Boston after their last game was an added insult to injury the team experienced to the previous championship series. Kobe will definitely not let that happen again. A very determined Kobe Bryant, an improved Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum plus a revived career of Ron Artest shows how hungry the Lakers team for this championship. Does Boston have a chance? Here are a few insights:

1. It may probably the Boston's Big Three last finals appearance. Garnett is showing age, Ray Allen is looking for another trade and Paul Pierce is not that consistent anymore. The fire that kept them going is the awesome performance of Rajon Rondo which made him this year's team leader.
2. Boston has too much pride at stake. They knew they beat the Lakers before and they know they can beat them again.
3. Boston's reserves have championship experience. Coach Doc Rivers will use his bench to help his 5 starters contain the Lakers offense.
4. LA is too predictable on offense, they either go to Kobe or Gasol. Kobe is next to impossible to guard so put 2 defenders on him but concentrate more on Gasol and Odom. Once Gasol and Odom gets confidence plus Kobe's immaculate offense, Boston will definitely be in trouble.

Although I am a Boston fan, I think the Lakers will get their revenge. I have been a Garnett fan since he was a rookie and I hope he plays more consistent and use his power more often. He is an explosive player during his younger days and I know he still has it in him. Paul Pierce is a bit over rated but since he has been with the Celtics since the beginning of his career, and the constant comparison to Kobe, he should also show his best offense. Kobe's hunger and leadership is the heart of the Lakers team and if he displays his confidence and aggressiveness, his team mates will follow. The key to stopping Lakers is Gasol and Odom because Kobe alone can not lift the whole team by himself. He needs support and this is where Gasol and Odom falls in.

Philippine Elections 2010

It has been more than 10 days since the last elections and so far we had a relatively good one. Except for the country's Vice President, I think everything is clear who will be our leaders for the next 6 years. For the President, Noynoy Aquino got more than 4 million votes compared to the second placer Joseph Estrada and in my opinion, Erap should be a gentleman and should concede and accept his loss. In fact, for the vice presidency, even though I am not a fan of Jojo Binay, I think Mar Roxas should start accepting that it would take a miracle to overtake Binay's lead of more than 700,000 votes and just concentrate on being a good senator and an adviser to Noynoy Aquino.

The country's first automated election is a 90% success and we should commend Comelec and Smartmatic for doing a good job (not great, but a passing mark). We should be thankful that we did not have several areas and provinces that had a failure of elections and this may be considered birth pains since it was our first time to had an automated one. A lot has to be learned from this year's experience and we must be more vigilant and be better to the next automated elections we will have in about 3 years. We may still experience a few errors on our second try but if we correct our mistakes and be more efficient, I can see that our elections will someday be as clean and efficient as the US elections.

Having a second Aquino as our president will indeed have a lot of expectations from the people. Just by watching and listening to his campaign ads in TV and radio, people expect him not to be corrupt and avoid committing the same mistakes as the Arroyo, Estrada and Marcos administration. Gloria Arroyo has been a good senator and a vice president but when she assumed the highest position, the temptation was too big for her not to notice. Her accomplishments as an economist was overshadowed by corruption cases and allegations thrown to her which were often supported by witnesses who got the sympathy of the public. Her husband, being the center of controversies was always implicated which added the public's distrust to the first couple. Now, after running and winning a congressional position to her hometown in Pampanga, people are saying that she will push for a charter change which will eventually bring her back to power as a prime minister. The Arroyos have been addicted to power and money that they do not know when to stop and try to exit properly.

Noynoy Aquino has a big hole to fill and 6 years is such a short time to help recover a third world country. A lot of issues has to be prioritized and he needs all the help he can have. I sincerely wish he avoids appointing traditional politicians as cabinet members and focus more on the youth and civil society. I pray that self serving politicians will be kicked out from their positions and deserving ones will be appointed. Since 6 years is a very short time, I think the president should try not to solve everything at the same time and focus on the most obvious. Poverty and population is the main problem and he should focus on the cause of poverty. Education and health is the key and if people are well educated, all other problems will eventually be solved.

Good luck and God Bless to our new leaders and let us all do our part to help make our country a better place to live in.

Our Baby Girl

It has been a very busy month for us. My wife was due to give birth to our second child on the first week of May but her doctor told us to expect the baby earlier since the baby will be born by C-section. We set the date to be on the 3rd week of April but to our surprise, the baby came much earlier. My wife was still going to the office but she decided to call me around 10:30am last April 8 because she called her doctor and asked for advice regarding the pain she felt the previous day. Upon seeing her doctor at around 11am, her doctor advised her to be admitted already because she had been experiencing contractions regularly.

To cut a long story short, my wife gave birth to our second child, a baby girl at around 3:30 pm last April 8. It was such a blessing because our first child is a boy and our second is a girl. We did not want to find out the gender of the child through ultrasound because we love the experience of people guessing if the baby is a girl or a boy and the surprise when my wife gives birth. Our daughter is 2.9kg when she was born and she looked like his brother when Leon was a new born. We stayed at the hospital for 3 days, too bad our son was not allowed to visit his mom but upon arriving at home, our son was really happy and excited to finally see his baby sister.

It has been more than a week now, after her first check up with the pediatrician, everything is ok and fine. We really thank God for the blessing we received and all the prayers our relatives and friends offered for us. We are very happy and excited to the coming days that we spend our time together, with my wife, our son and our baby daughter.

mahalo.com

Its been a while since I wrote a post here in my blog. I discovered a new site and I got addicted to it since day one. The site is http://www.mahalo.com. It was my first time there and I got addicted in posting answers and asking questions to the community. There is an incentive for every answer you post. Each answer, if you post within an hour when the question is posted, you get 4 points. If not, you still get 2 points. The point system will determine your rank or "belt" which will give you more opportunities when you accumulate points. Not only that, you get to earn a few dollars too, that is if you answer good, base on facts or experience and your answer was chosen as the best. You get to compete with a lot of members but it you will be inspired to answer better if you see that members comment or vote for your answer as the best.

Payout will be sent to your Paypal account upon you reach $150 Mahalo dollars. Each Mahalo dollar is equivalent to $0.75. It will be quite a while to reach $150 but you get to learn a lot more opportunities. Last month, they listed members who got a payout and I was surprised to see more than 20 members who got a payout ranging from M$150 to M$3000. Those who got more than M$500 are usually page managers of different pages in Mahalo or they did a number of tasks assigned. It is a nice site to learn new things and you get to improve your researching skills to get the best answer to each category.

Hopefully I get more time to post articles here in my blog. Summer is here and a lot of activities is in line during this season.

It's My Son's 3rd Birthday

Tomorrow, March 2, will be my son, Leon's birthday. We will celebrate his birthday but it will be a simple celebration. I'll cook pasta at home, buy ice cream and my wife will buy the cake. We are so thankful to God that for the past 3 years, our son is always healthy and is always cheerful and obedient. We love our son very much and he always brings out the best out of us.

Leon is turning 3 and he will learn more things this year. Nowadays, he is always into puzzles and my wife and i are so amazed on how he quickly learns to put the pieces together. Even when we mix 2-3 sets of puzzle pieces together, he knows which pieces are related to each other. In fact my wife bought him probably 5-6 different sets and he already outgrown them. We are now looking for 100-150 pieces but we have not had a chance to buy one from bookstores and shopping malls. We bought a 500 piece puzzle but it is too complicated for him. Honestly, it is also too complicated for me...:).

I am planning to buy a Lego set for him. This toy has been with us for years. I remember when i was a kid and i built all sorts of vehicles from my small Lego sets. Hopefully i can find an affordable set for my son because Lego sets are a bit expensive. Lego may be too old school but i can't find any other toy that would develop a child's creativity through building blocks as flexible as Lego.

My wife is also planning to buy him a bike. His only bike was the prize we got from his baptism and the bike is way too small for him now. Still, he oftentimes play with it during mornings. I am sure, when he gets a bigger bike, he will ask us to go to the nearest park so he can maximize the space he has to ride his bike.

I love being with my family and i enjoy every minute of it. I am even more excited now because my wife is scheduled to give birth to our second child this April. She had her ultrasound 2 months ago but we refused to know if it is a boy or a girl, same thing we did with Leon. We just love it when everybody is guessing the sex of the baby and i love it when my wife gives birth, i will be the first to tell everybody if our child is a he or a she. Our family is truly blessed and I thank God for everything that He gave us.

Working Out

My friends and I have been playing badminton every Saturdays and it feels great. To have a regular exercise and an activity to look forward to other than work really helps relieve stress. I have been thinking to play twice a week but I still have to figure out where will I fit badminton to my busy schedule during weekdays. Plus, getting friends to join you is another thing. You have to organize at least 5-6 players to play for 2 hours. One hour is not enough because you are barely warmed up and just starting to get the hang of it and suddenly your 1 hour has lapsed.

One of my co-workers decided to join us 2 weeks ago and I was impressed by the way he moved. It was his first time to play in a real badminton court and his smash and power is really good. I would say, given about 2-3 months of regular play and training, he will be a good player. His secret.... he regularly goes to the gym to workout for years and has maintained a good and healthy lifestyle.

He has been convincing me for weeks to join him during his workouts but i really can not include it to my schedule. My work extends up to 6-7pm and i hurry home sometimes to cook dinner or just spend time with my wife and my son. I still have work on Saturdays and my only off-Sunday is for church and lunch at my sister's house with her family, my mom and my dad. If only if i have one more day between Sunday and Monday, I am sure it will also be filled up with all sorts of activities.

Just yesterday, i had to meet a client at Fort Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. I was with my co-worker since i have been training him for a month now. We were on our way back to our office in Quezon City but got stuck for 2 hours in EDSA because of the EDSA People Power Anniversary celebration. I had to return some stuff to the office because Thursday is my car's coding day. It was past 7pm, traffic is still at a standstill and i have to go home. I then decided to just wake up early, go to the office before 7am to avoid the coding scheme and return things to our office. Now, i wondered what to do from 7am-830am? My co-worker suggested to go to the gym and i guess it was a good idea. It was really fun. It was my first time again since college days and i miss lifting weights. A lot has changed since then, i learned to use a few machines and now i am eager to go to my next session. I am not really into building a great physique but i remembered i do enjoy working out. And it is a inexpensive sport since gym fees are really affordable, except if you enroll to high class gyms that charge thousands per month. Going to the gym is fun and i plan to do it regularly. It is really nice to include sports to your regular routine and i cannot wait to start swimming and biking again. Will i still have time? I really hope so.