unbelievable university upshot

this is a delayed post, it should've been posted last week, but as usual, work got in the way...

our officemate texted me from the gym, "check out studio 23." so when we switched channels, we saw it was the 4th quarter, with UP leading DLSU 60-56 i think, but still leading! then it was only 20-seconds left, and UP won, wonder of wonders!

despite my feelings previously on UP's status in the UAAP, i still felt quite giddy for winning this game. it's like finding a P50 bill in your pocket; you didn't know it was there, but it was a pleasant surprise when you get it!

question is, will the taga-UP people be finding more P50 bills in their pockets? :>

challenging chess choices

despite appearances, i suck in playing chess. that's because i get overwhelmed with all the thinking involved so that my mind shuts down. consider this scenario:

it's my eleventh move in the game, with the pieces generally astrew throughout the board. i look at the pieces. this is what's on my mind:

do i move the knight forward?
do i retreat the knight?
shall i make my pawn eat his bishop?
if i eat his bishop, my pawn will be eaten by his knight, then i'll be exposing my queen
if i expose my queen, will i be able to avoid the onslaught?
do i castle my king?
will i be constricting my king too much?
will my rook be able to move more freely?
won't i be exposing my rook?
should i move the bishop to the king's row?
won't there be a surprise waiting there, i.e. my bishop will be eaten there?
will my bishop be trapped and be rendered useless for the rest of the game?
should i position my pawn in the middle, because it's a strategic spot?
what will my pawn do there once that happens?

while i'm going through all these scenarios, i get confused and interchange one scenario for another. as a result, i just take the first instinct (move the knight forward).

meanwhile, my opponent, because he's focused and has a less cluttered mind, would know what to do & have one or two backup plans. and he wins.

of course there are times i can be impulsive, but rarely on things that need a semblance of thinking. i could take hours trying to make sense of the thought processes involved at work, in determining which route to take on a trip, or even analyzing a friend's current situation. i think too damned much.

i moved the pawn now, should i move it back?
if i move it back, won't my king be exposed again?
shall my rook eat the knight now?
if i wait too long, won't the other guy's pawn become queen?

then, i get checkmated.

bank blustering boondoggle

the rally's getting bigger at the ayala-paseo corner. my latest spy report (hi pinky!) says that there were a lot of people in front of 6750, but not anymore... so, with the latest test to this administration, let's go to another lee & bambi blooper! mwehehehehe! :D

(scenario, bambi's local bank)

bambi: don't forget to drop by the bank, i have to withdraw something
lee: okay (proceeds to drive past the bank)
bambi: oy! ano ba? nalampasan na natin! (gives lee the old one-two-three slap)
lee: sorry... (sniffs, drives in reverse back to the bank...). park muna tayo to wait for the ones in the vestibule
bambi: anakngpatingambagalbagalniladibanilaalamgagawinnilaatmnamanyan!!!
howhardcoulditbebilisannyonamaynaghihintaypaditosalabas!!!
lee: hon, relax... ayan, tayo na
bambi: finally... teka, nasaan na atm card ko?
lee: tsk3x... ayan tuloy, nakarma ka...
bambi: (mental note, ask chris evans to send some money from fantastic four ticket sales)
lee: (mental note, ask jessica alba to send some money from fantastic four ticket sales)

subversive school spirit

for my two to three blog readers who want a break from my political diatribes, this is for you (well, more for me than for you, but you get the drift).

as the UAAP season comes around, i distinctly notice the intense rivalry between the blue & the green dudes. of course, being from the great state university, we always like to think we're above such trifle details. truth be told though, it's because our basketball team always loses.... i even get surprised whenever we'd won a game! we can win at cheering, track, piko, or what-not, but because we live in a basketball-centric society, not having a fighting chance for the fighting maroons is just plain sad. coupled with the fact that we're supposed to be one of the top universities who can't even eke out a good basketball team, we just let the UAAP season pass us by...

in addition, people have noticed that there's a sense of "elitism" among iskos, that if you don't come from the state u, you don't belong in that intellectual circle. why must we always have to assert to ourselves that we are the smartest humans around? i thought about this and came up with this generalized (disclaimer!) analysis:

the blue dudes have their smarts, their riches, and their assertiveness, so they don't need to prove anything.

the green dudes have their sports, their riches, and their connections, so they also don't need to prove anything.

us from the state u have the smarts which we can't really express that well verbally. plus the fact that most of us don't have the second factor that the blue & green dudes have in common....

so does our sense of elitism stem from our insecurities, since our smarts is all what we have, and that's it? that's just plain sad too...

let's see how the flames look like! he3x! :P

scrutiny on scurrilous subjects

I’m waiting for my own PC to get its act together and save my excel file. In the meantime, I might as well update my dormant blog.

Why have I been so lazy in updating as of late? My daily routine for the past few days involve sometimes going to the gym, keeping my ear to the ground because of the developments in our beloved republic, chatting through YM, reading blogs, and squeezing in some work for an upcoming big presentation! Heck, it’s a Sunday, and I’m still at the office!!!

Anyhoo, the past few days have brought us the popular gloriagate scandals (for lack of a better term), which is why I’ve been keeping my ear to the ground lately. Among all things, political observations are among my blog content regulars, but work really gets in the way… he3x! In addition, if I had made a blog post, it would’ve been so lengthy that time for friendstering would be lost. But since I’m constrained due to my current excel situation, I might as well comment on the issue. I have commented though on a fellow blogger’s post on this (I still have to ask permission to add him to my links).

What can I say about the recent scandals? These are my thoughts:

The tapes are real. It was her nasally voice. She admitted it herself, but it didn’t really come as a surprise.

I do believe she (and/or her minions) cheated. To what extent, I don’t know. But not only for her side, but also the other side.

On the jueteng thing, I’m not too sure. I dunno if the three Arroyos are on the take, but I wouldn’t really put it past them, since jueteng has tentacles as far as the eye can see, and even beyond that.

The only thing keeping her afloat is the lack of a viable alternative. Any change proposed by the so-called opposition would have birthing pains, plus bring in the same problems as the status quo. (I call them “so-called opposition” in reference to Amando Doronila’s comment that the current opposition is only opposing for the sake of taking power; they do not have an ideological basis whatsoever.)

On one hand, the opposition saw that the prez was at her lowest popularity point, so they jumped on the chance. Out came the jueting thing and the tapes. In case you haven’t noticed, they also were responsible for stopping the E-VAT implementation, in effect stopping another unpopular administration motion.

(I hate taxes; no one’s supposed to like them. But in order to bring this republic out of the pits, hard measures have to be taken. Although it’s a given that the graft thing must be solved in order to reduce the leakages, collections would have to be optimized. This is where the VAT comes in, since it increases the verification system of taxation & income.)

On the other hand, the administration has had a lousy time implementing its stated goals. Only the Finance department seems to be getting its act together. As for the peace & order, legislation, health services, education, public works, the performance is dismal.

I voted for her in the hopes that she be the better candidate; that she implement the hard reforms. She thinks she’s unpopular because she’s being hard on us; she’s actually being too soft on us, not doing enough and not being quick enough. She may be an economist, but she’s primarily a politician.

Unfortunately, her alternatives are worse. Unless we see someone who is worth changing the status quo for, who would bring genuine change, there would always be a stalemate. With that, you can bet your bottom dollar that it’ll come back to you with 5-10 more additional pesos.

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I’m restarting my PC now. I do hope I don’t lose that much work…. :-s

In addition, let's see where the flames go... ;)