Finally, after a grueling 82-game season for the NBA’s 30 teams, the 2009 NBA Playoffs is set to begin on April 18, Saturday (Sunday here in the Philippines).

The playoff bracket has already been identified. Despite a winning record (46-36), my Phoenix Suns failed to make it in a very disappointing season.

The defending champion Boston Celtics faces tougher competition this year with the rising Cleveland Cavaliers and the Orlando Magic. There’s also the Los Angeles Lakers seeking out to avenge their defeat at last season’s NBA Finals. After all, NBA experts have picked Kobe’s team to win it all at an nba.com preseason survey.

Anyway, here’s the complete schedule of games for the first-round.

Please continue reading…

Today is the 40th day since “Master Rapper” Francis Magalona’s death  from acute myelogenous leukemia last March 6, 2009. As a personal tribute, I’m sharing to you guys the items that he gave me, a lyric sheet of his album “Freeman” and a sticker of a product he endorsed. He even autographed them and wrote me a personal note!

I was in third year high school when the album “Freeman” was released in 1995. It was Francis Magalona’s fifth album together with his band Hardware Syndrome and backup singers Evil Stepsisters. I bought a cassette tape and immediately fell in love with the songs. The fusion of rap and rock was seamless in the album. I was also fascinated with the various “samples” and “fillers” used ranging from former president Fidel V. Ramos’ speech to Francis M’s kids talking with each other to Ted Failon introducing Francis M.

Please continue reading…

NOTE: I’m making a series of blogs narrating the events last year that led to our wedding on December 22, 2007. I’m making this to share to others and for me and my wife to always remember how we became hitched to each other. This is the tenth blog in the series.

Our wedding was the most wonderful event that happened between me and Wendy. Aside from making this Our Wedding Chronicles series, we have items that will remind us of that special day and show to our future kids. One is the box frame. It measures 3′ x 4′.

The box frame contains items that we used during the wedding ceremony and at the reception like…

Please continue reading…

I have long been fascinated with Easter eggs. No, I’m not talking about the ovoid, shiny, decorated, different-colored objects apparently hidden by the Easter Bunny for kids to hunt down during Easter Sunday morning. What I’m referring to are those hidden message, in-joke or feature in an object such as a movie, video game, or computer program. They are the “virtual” Easter eggs.

To better understand what I’m talking about, type this in the address bar of your Mozilla Firefox browser: about:mozilla. The message that appears is an Easter egg. It might differ depending on the version you are using. Mammon refers to those Internet Explorer users. Here’s another one; go to Yahoo’s website. Click on the dot in the exclamation point. You must have a speaker to hear the yodel.

Cool huh? Continue reading for more eggs.

Please continue reading…

The door to the 2009 NBA Playoffs has been officially slammed shut for my beloved Phoenix Suns. A hard-fought 105-100 win against Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets today did not prevent the team from missing the playoffs for just the third time in 21 seasons, the last one in 2004. Superman Shaquille O’Neal will miss the postseason for only the second time in his 16 year career. The first time was during his 1992-93 rookie season.

The Phoenix Suns actually had a big chance to sneak into the playoffs when they played the Dallas Mavericks last April 6. In the team’s most important game of the season, it was overwhelmed 140-116. Had the Suns won that game, the Mavs will only have a 2 game-lead over them for the 8th playoff spot. Because of that loss, in order for the team to make the playoffs, it must finish 5-0 and Dallas 0-5. That’s virtually impossible!

Later in the day, the Dallas Mavericks made sure there will be no miracles for the Phoenix Suns when it defeated the Utah Jazz 130-101.

Please continue reading…

I was in my fourth year of studying Computer Engineering at UIC, Davao City when I saw this film, Coyote Ugly.

The film is about an aspiring songwriter who lands a part time job as a bartender in a bar named Coyote Ugly (of course). This is no ordinary bar though as the bartenders are hot babes serving drinks while dancing to a rowdy crowd of men. I think the movie was the inspiration for the now defunct Danny’s Bar along Ponciano St.

One of the hotties from the film is a girl aptly nicknamed “The Russian Tease”, Izabella Miko.

Please continue reading…