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October Sky
October 24, 2007A lot of people are celebrating their birthdays this month — my dad, brother, mom, sister (just look at my previous posts!), and people from high school, college, and work… Whew! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
I was thinking of a suitable title for this post when I suddenly remembered that movie called October Sky. The movie was released in 1999, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (you all know this guy) and Chris Cooper (who appeared in films such as American Beauty and The Bourne Identity). It's basically about a small-town boy (Gyllenhaal), the son of a coal miner (Cooper), who wanted to pursue rocketry after the launch of Sputnik.
It's amazing, really. The film was set in the 1950s and at the beginning of the story, Jakey G's character, Homer Hickam, was only 14 years old. 14! What was I preoccupied with when I was 14? What were you preoccupied with when you were 14? Most of us probably wished that we could strap ourselves to a rocket and go to space; but did we think about building the rocket ourselves…?
Wow. Just… wow.
By the way, Homer Hickam is a real person, and the movie was based on his autobiographical book, Rocket Boys. (Trivia: "October Sky" is an anagram for "Rocket Boys") He worked for NASA and was able to do all those nifty science stuff that I could never ever understand, even if I tried.
What's the point of this post, anyway? Nothing, really. I just remembered seeing the movie years ago and started googling. XD
* * *
The past couple of weeks or so, I found that I kinda like my work. I mean, I still don't want to keep coding for a living, but I'm having fun right now just being able to modify/add to different parts of the system. So far, my work is not repetitive, it keeps on changing, which only means that it's not that boring. Haha! Granted, I've only been with the company for a little over four months. It's fairly new, so I guess it's still enjoyable. Ask me again after a year and I might give a different answer.
Oh and a quick "update": I was actually expecting to transfer to another group within the company, but due to lack of resources, it's imperative that I stay where I am until they hire people to replace me.
*sigh* This whole Singapore thing is killing every single IT company in the country. Well, what can I say? Singapore is the new USA.
A sycophantic meme
October 14, 2007From Au
(I put the images in. Haha!)
Carmina
Songstress "Latin"
You have great self-confidence and a charming personality which attracts many friends and admirers. Your innate sense of personal power and ability to lead are ideally suited to positions of authority. Being so versatile and seeing the big picture your ambitions are high and much is usually expected of you. With patience and tenacity you will certainly fulfill the great potential you have for success.
Elise
Consecrated to God "Hebrew"
Extremely intelligent in thought and deed you are gifted at communication and finding practical applications for your ideas. You are strong willed and ambitious and need to have passion, freedom and adventure in your life. Always willing to help others your warm, honest and loyal nature ensures that you are loved by all. It is likely that you will achieve a great deal of success and recognition in life.
Dionne
Queen of heaven, divine one "Latin"
Honest, dependable and practical you tend to have a fairly conservative but determined approach to life. Your intelligence and wisdom means that you are sought out for guidance and advice. Gifted in communication you are philosophical and intuitive and are usually a traveller both mentally and physically. People respect you for your patience, discretion and integrity.
Dalusong
Versatile, intelligent and artistically talented. You love to enjoy yourself and tend to experience a happy domestic life and material success. You have a methodical and thorough mind and are able to organise large projects easily. Charming and likeable and with more than your share of sex appeal you tend to find yourself in the spotlight and much admired by others. Life is more fun with you around.
Cami
You are a deep thinker and student of life using your intuition and natural detective ability to seek truth and hidden knowledge. Peaceloving and compassionate you are nonetheless strong-willed and courageous in confronting challenges. Although your approach to life tends to be on a mental level it is important for you to see your ideas and concepts take form in the material world. Your talents and leadership skills give you great potential for a distinguished career.
Movie: Stardust
*WARNING: Spoilers and such*
So I just watched Stardust in the theater a few hours ago. It was alright. Not the best movie I've seen, but it had its moments:
- Captain Shakespeare (Robert De Niro) revealing his feminine side for the first time in the movie. That cracked me up. I think the dancing-in-drag part was a bit awkward, or that the joke went on too long. Either way, it was funny, but only for a couple of seconds. Drawing a heart over his mole was cute, though. Hee.
- I loved it when Tristan (Charlie Cox) made that macho move with his sword when that cad, Humphrey (Henry Cavill), challenged him with his, uh, stick? Haha! That sounded so gay… Anywho, I like it because it was the most explicit display of that boy-to-man change the narrator talked about in the beginning of the movie.
- Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer) transforming from a hag of a witch into this evil, sexy, enchantress. Me-ow. If I looked like this by the time I'm 49, I'd die happy:
I dare say that Michelle Pfeiffer and the musical score was this movie's saving grace.
I’m forgetting about all this in the morning
October 12, 2007My mom and sister are here. Yeah, they are sleeping over. I temporarily banished myself to the floor and let them have my bed. I'm already a bad enough daughter/sister to secretly not want them here despite the fact that tomorrow is my mom's birthday, and Tuesday is my sister's, so I figured sleeping on the floor for one night should make up for the lack of enthusiasm with regard to their presence in my usually peaceful and quiet abode.
*breeeeeathe*
I'm going to hell.
* * *
In other news: I need to move, move, move!
Dammit. I shouldn't have had that cup of coffee. *sigh*
I was just telling Pao on chat that I wanna play ball. There's a basketball court in our village but I don't want to go and play there by myself. Besides, it's usually surrounded by the neighborhood jologs and I'm like, "Bitch, please… I'm like, anti-jologs and all the cool people gravitate to me."
Yes, I was joking, and yes, I quoted another line from Studio 60. XD
Nevertheless, would any one of you play ball by yourself in a basketball court surrounded by people you don't know?
Yeah, didn't think so.
* * *
Hmm, I don't like the way I sound tonight. I should stop before I say something… inappropriate.
Hahahahaha! Yeah, right. Like I'm supposed to care about propriety.
I do crack myself up sometimes.
The Joy of Basketball
October 8, 2007So UAAP Season 70 is finally over. Good show, Blue Eagles. Congrats, La Salle. Too bad, UE. To the rest, there's always next year.
This post really isn't about the recently concluded UAAP season, but more of an ordinary basketball post by a girl who loves to play the game. I figured that it's about time I wrote about my experiences as a female ball player and I'm quite certain that some of the events that I would describe here are something that you can relate to.
Early Years
Growing up in the Philippines, where every town plaza has a basketball court, you just know that I'd be exposed to the sport a lot. Members of my family are true San Miguel fans (from the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)), especially my Dad, who worshipped both the basketball franchise and the beer. We'd sit on the floor of our parents' room and watch basketball games on the telly with them. I admit I didn't know what the hell happened on those games and I never really understood the rules except for "shoot the ball and earn points". I was about 5 or 6 years old at the time.
Outside our house, we had a wooden board and a basketball ring installed in one of our huge tamarind trees. My brothers would often play there a couple of hours a day everyday and I could only watch, since my tiny arms could barely throw the ball high enough to go over my brothers' heads.
I watched them play for years, especially Kuya Edward (the eldest), who has this habit of nailing one shot after the other perfectly. I remember one time when I challenged him to shoot the ball from a certain distance and he nailed it — not once, but twice in a row. I still remember the triumphant look on his face when turned to me and said, "Accuracy."
Soon enough I was able to shoot the ball from just inside the free-throw range. I used two arms because I still found the ball quite heavy. I assisted the throw with a jump, because the ball just won't fly high enough if I just stand there and shoot. I usually missed and it bothered me — a lot. I'd shoot from the same spot and I wouldn't quit unless I was able to put the ball through the hoop… twice in a row.
Accuracy.
High School
When I was a freshman, I couldn't even participate in the intramurals because I couldn't afford the basketball uniform and my Mom wouldn't shell out a cent for it. I remember the bitter taste of jealousy as I watched my classmates play, donned in freshman green. I cheered for them then, but I really wished I was part of the team.
Sophomore year was a slight improvement. I still couldn't afford a jersey (my Mom is terribly stubborn and thrifty when it comes to school expenses, especially extra-curricular ones) and I wasn't part of the regular line-up until the final minutes of the very last game with our rivals, the Juniors.
We were short one player and I really, really wanted to play. Unless I wore a jersey, I wasn't allowed to. I could borrow Tricia's easily, but I couldn't use her number. Our solution: wear the jersey inside out. Yes! And because it was a small high school, technicalities like that were overlooked. I could finally play! CUISON (Ti's last name) became NOSIUC and the numbers switched places as well.
For the first time I felt the high of playing on court. That day, it wasn't an ordinary basketball game, it was a competition. I was part of a team and we were out there to win. Everybody was cheering, yelling, and chanting. My heart was racing and I was sweating like there's no tomorrow. Total chaos! And then the whistle blew. Game on. Not even five minutes in and I scored two shots back-to-back. The Juniors never even saw it coming.
I couldn't even remember if we won that game. The Juniors probably did. But it didn't matter. I was able to play and that was all I cared about.
Junior year was significantly better. I made it a point to save up for a jersey, despite my teeny allowance. Jersey #10 was born; and so it lives until this very day. We won the championship that year, too. Yeah, we beat the Seniors… Booyah!
The first game with the Sophomores was the first time I played a full game. It was awesome, even if I stood and waited on court for most of the time. That became my role every game: Wait by the opponent's court until somebody gives me the ball… then shoot. You see, I had these terrible side stitches whenever I exerted myself through running. I guess I haven't learned proper breathing at the time and I didn't drink often enough. I scored points, yes, but I couldn't stay in the game for long periods of time. I had to be subbed quite often and I didn't like it.
It was the same dance come Senior year. Although the side stitch issue wasn't too much of a problem anymore, I still found myself not able to stay in the game long enough.
Endurance: That's what I lacked.
Getting picked for varsity was a godsend. Not only was I able to practice ball-handling better, I also got the hang of running. Pretty soon we were going against teams from other schools in the city. It was a big change for me, since I only got used to playing on the school court, which was significantly smaller than the official one. It was an entirely different ball game. You can see the shot clock ticking 3-2-1, and there were bigger, better girls on court. We finished third over-all, which wasn't bad. Actually, it was way better than what we expected. Our consolation to the "loss" was that our team looked the girliest. The players of the other teams looked like boys. Haha. Sourgrapes. What can I say? That's high school.
College
Ateneo registration day, June 2000. My second brother advised me to take PE101 first before any other PE subject. Thank God I listened to him. As soon as I got the mandatory subject over and done with, I had the pick of the litter. And of course, I just had to pick basketball. Surprise, surprise.
Two semesters of playing ball was a whole lot of fun. It wasn't as exciting as high school, but I still enjoyed it. The bulk of it was pretty basic, since most of my classmates were first-time players, or just girls that didn't care as long as they passed the subject. We had daily ball-handling/passing/shooting drills and of course, actual games. I met really good ball players, too. One can even do the spider dribble!
It was all about having fun.
Our teacher made us compete with another basketball class as part of our final grade. And so I was able to be part of two different teams (two different classes for two sems) and won both times against the other classes. The competition wasn't all that, since we're all just playing for fun and, of course, the grade. Some of the girls became quite conscious of themselves when (cute) boys started to flock by the sidelines to watch us play ball. It was quite funny to hear the boys go "Ohhhh!" when I sunk a trey. I also felt a flutter when the coach of the other team told me I was good. Wow. Cute boys and a compliment — how could I ever forget?
Sometimes I wonder if I should have tried out for varsity. I would've been very happy if I even get picked for Team B. 5'2"? Duh. But hey, it would have probably taken over my college life because of all the training involved. In the end, I was happy with my decision. I was content on just playing no-pressure ball.
Post-College
I thought I saw the end of my basketball days back in college. Not quite. For one year, SLF held a girls' basketball tournament. Imagine my delight when I learned that I'd be playing my favorite game once again!
I met really cool girls from other departments and we just had fun with it. Despite our work schedule, we made time to practice. Every Friday after work was game on and a chance to unwind. And whaddaya know, our team won the championship! Whee!
One thing I noticed was that the older women in the teams seemed to be more aggressive. I took fouls a lot (not in the face, thank God) and they were more intense on the court. Some took the game quite seriously. I guess I just got used to the smiling faces at college that I forgot how real, aggressive competition looked like.
In any case, that was the last time I played basketball.
I miss it. I really, really miss it. Watching UAAP basketball and cheering for the Blue Eagles gives me a different kind of high, but none that would compare to actually being there and playing the game yourself. When everybody around you is yelling and you couldn't really hear them, none of it makes sense anymore and it's just you and nine other players. Somehow you find a way to not hear the cheers and the jeers, and all you can see and hear are your teammates, and the five the other players on the court. It's a different kind of world and it's my happy place.
One of these days I'll find time to play again. I just hope it's sooner rather than later.
It's not over yet.
One Big Fight! XD
Song Post: "Vienna"
October 5, 2007
Ever since "Piano Man" and "New York State of Mind", I've loved Billy Joel's songs. And when I heard "Vienna", I just fell in love with it. It's probably the most underrated song… ever. It's from his album called "The Stranger".
Here's a YouTube link. I hope you get to simply appreciate this wonderful song, if not love it as much as I do.
~ * ~
"Vienna"
Billy Joel
Slow down, you crazy child
You're so ambitious for a juvenile
But then if you're so smart
Tell me why are you still so afraid?
Where's the fire, what's the hurry about?
You better cool it off before you burn it out
You got so much to do
And only so many hours in a day
But you know that when the truth is told
That you can get what you want
Or you an just get old
You're gonna kick off
Before you even get halfway through
When will you realize… Vienna waits for you
Slow down you're doing fine
You can't be everything you want to be before your time
Although it's so romantic on the borderline tonight
Too bad but it's the life you lead
You're so ahead of yourself
That you forgot what you need
Though you can see when you're wrong
But you know you can't always see when you're right
You got your passion you got your pride
BUt don't you know only fools are satisfied?
Dream on but don't imagine they'll all come true
When will you realize… Vienna waits for you
Slow down, you crazy child
And take the phone off the hook
And disappear for a while
It's alright you can afford to lose a day or two
When will you realize… Vienna waits for you
~ * ~
Frustrated Magnate
Haha! "Sulking corner for the scorned"!
Ahhhhh… Someday, someday…
Magnate's Hideout
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Abbey Road
October 1, 2007Pao posted it first; and I'm posting it again here. It's just too cute and amusing to pass up. 
And here's the Simpsonized version:
Homer looks damn cool in white. 