Tansan

The Flickr site

Zen Fastbreak

"If you meet the Buddha in the lane, feed him the ball"
Phil Jackson

It's All Stats

That new Fil-Am coach of Miami Heat said it right: it's all statistics. Before you say that the Celtics-Lakers Finals was all magic and nostalgia and parquet flooring and fate, John Hollinger as early as March said that Celtics has one foot in the finals and the Lakers has one small toe jammed on it. He had them 1 and 3 in his power rankings. Utah is 2nd while Detroit is 6th. Spurs is 8th so stop fretting about a Detroit-Spurs shouldabeen. It's less likely. This was later changed to Celtics 1st, Pistons 2nd, Lakers 3rd and Utah 4th. At the start of the playoffs, Celtics is 72 percent likely to make it to Finals while and 54 percent as champs. Lakers was 18 percent in the Finals and 7 percent to win it all. Utah was 31 percent Champs but the intangibles were again at work here. Although the Las Vegas oddsmakers (Market) were more on the money. Two months this was the comparison. They don't know the power of Le Bron:
Boston - 42% (Hollinger) / 24% (Market)
Detroit - 12% (Hollinger) / 12% (Market)
LA Lakers - 12% (Hollinger) / 15% (Market)
Utah - 6% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
Orlando - 6% (Hollinger) / 3% (Market)
Houston - 4% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
San Antonio - 4% (Hollinger) / 12% (Market)
New Orleans - 3% (Hollinger) / 5% (Market)
Dallas - 3% (Hollinger) / 4% (Market)
Phoenix - 3% (Hollinger) / 10% (Market)
Denver - 2% (Hollinger) / 1% (Market)
Golden State - 2% (Hollinger) / 1% (Market)
Cleveland - 0% (Hollinger) / 3% (Market)

When the Celtics-Lakers Dominations Ended

Tonight, for the first time since 1979, the National Basketball Assciation championship series began without the Boston Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers.
Uh oh.

Know Your Signs

It Now Seems Easy being Green

Despite losing in the finals of Britain's Got Talent, Charlie Green, 11, is going to be signed by BMG Sony along with Faryl Smith and Andrew Jonston. But as of now, George Sampson who did "Singin' In The Rain" the way Gene Kelly would want it to be, is the odd-on favorite. But my favorite are the Cheeky Monkeys because they dance like monkeys and are indeed cheeky and Gin, the dog.

Tofua

This is the island of Tofua in the Kingdom of Tonga. French explorer and adventurer Xavier Rosset will spend 300 days alone on this remote tropical island in the South Pacific. His adventures will be filmed and used for a 52-minute documentary. Xavier’s only luggage will be a Swiss army knife, machete video camera and a solar panel for charging the camera. He will spend 10 months alone on an island to develop another way of life through an exciting adventure, a return to the elemental sources. Xavier will survive alone on an island without human interference and without polluting emissions. Yes, I also figured it out. Tofua is made of tofu.

Casting the First Stone (Sharon)

Sharon Stone said that the China earthquake was a result of karma. Predictably, China called for boycott of everything Sharonian. Would that include Sharon Cuneta? Which reminds me, she looked like Louie Cruz, nowadays. But that's not what I'm afraid of. Because of karma, the US should now prepare for the Big One. No joke, the pain and suffering they caused us and the ignorance and hedonism of the people there?

Epitaph for the Man who Died Holding a Hammer

from a poet with a sword name

The hammer poem

by Dennis Espada

He delivers a blow to the gods
of capital and–against all odds–
grinds die-hard icons of greed,
pounds emancipation they forbid.
Hail the man holding the hammer
who lives on like roaring thunder.

Guardian Eats Pinoy Rice

Nash twittered me, a two page feature on the Philippines in the Guardian. Uh oh, it's about rice. Also Banaue. Philippines said the famine is over. What famine? What over? It's always famine and will always be so. But maybe I expect my sister in UK to send me a cavan of couscous.
Speaking of British, meet Ian Fleming, author of the Bond novels (except the new one) 100 ways

Ellis Shomita

I don't know this person but he comes out in my inbox screaming, Finest Offer. I took it. It said, "Penis Enlargement, Worldwide Delivery. see here." So I opened see here, and got the map of Sudan. This is not a joke. This is a Spam but funny.

What the Fuck is Wrong With Karapatan?

You are saying sorry to the widow of Crispin Beltran because of the snafu about the Bicol Bishop telling the priests of Bicol not to say mass for him because he is not supposedly a Catholic? Because his body spent a night at the Aglipayan Cathedral? You are saying sorry for the Bicol Bishop who is a hypocrite? Everything that Beltran did is not worth it because he was not a Catholic (even if he was)? Human rights transcend big-time religion. We are disrespecting the memory of Beltran and of his wife by saying sorry to a bishop who kowtows only to God a/o PGMA. Karapatan is now like an oppressive politician who knows he (or she in the case of PGMA) is in the right because he kisses the hand of the bishop. I love Godfather I and II because it reminds me of me and you. What intellectual and spiritual liars we have become.

Home

Really bad news for the Spurs. Boston Globe, which knows what it's saying with the Celtics said that home court advantage is real. They gave reasons, like travel for the visitors, familiarity of turf and the psychological state of the home athletes. That means Manu is better off playing in Argentina.

OC

Who is this?

Leonardo de Caprio when he was young. There are other famous OCs like Alec Baldwin, David Beckham, Billy Bob Thorton, Cameron Diaz...

Curtains

Yes, Spurs fans will talk about the foul on Barry that never came but there were fouls that weren't called anyway. Whatever it is, it's curtains. 1-3 and they are going to LA. Here's Kobe's call on the thing:

Nash Has a Question, Hon. Pangilinan

REM's 5

If you are to choose only five REM songs

Haruki Murakami on Translations

Haruki-san talks to Mainichi about translating American literary giants
Also Powerpuff Girls are now ten years old!

The Real Indiana Jones

The real Indiana Jones is Otto Rahn, using the 13th century epic Parsifal to look for the Holy Grail. In order to find it, he turned into a Nazi and then became anti-Nazi. He was also gay.

The Reel Map of the World

This is a cartographic map made by Volkswagen (don't ask) of the film industry. Look at New Zealand at the first map. Look how small Philippines is when it comes to film budget. Hong Kong, Japan and India are suddenly continents.

Recovering from the Archu Loss

Ha, ha! Vulture gives us the five stages of grief over David A's loss:

Denial:
How could wonderful little David Archuleta possibly have lost? He sang flawlessly on Tuesday night, just as he has all season! Even Simon told him he'd scored a knockout victory, capably transforming even the world's crappiest song into one besting the collective efforts of Beethoven, the Beatles, and the finest angel choirs in all of Heaven! Clearly Wednesday's American Idol finale was all just some awful dream, shared simultaneously by 31.7 million viewers.

Anger:
Shut up, David Cook! You're bald! And a bad guitar player! Plus, you look a little like Philip Seymour Hoffman! We hate grunge versions of eighties songs — and you! You're not fit to carry the Jonas Brothers' tambourine case! People only voted for you ironically!

Bargaining:
David Archuleta still gets a record deal, right? At least we have his fantastic albums to look forward to, don't we? And even if we're the only ones who buy them, he can still mount a comeback on Broadway, right? RIGHT?

Depression:
Oh, what's the point? There's simply no recovering from this.

Acceptance:
We have not yet reached this stage. Posting will resume on Tuesday. Enjoy the long weekend — we know we won't.

Abbey Escalator

They are playing Beatles where I am. I searched for my files and found two Abbey Road homage. One is the mix-up of Oasis and the A.R. album cover:


Click for the Abbey Escalator:

Experiment

First, go to Youtube
Second, type "UP writers workshop"
Third, watch

Answers before the question, "What the?"
That's Marby. Her day job is teaching literature in UP. She scored 83 in the unusually stringent MagicSing rating
That's Rica Bolipata-Santos. Literary nonfictionist aka family secrets miner.
That's Tara Sering and Ralph Galan.
Why is Rica whirling? That's me.
That's Atty. Nicholas Pichay dancing with the White Lady of John Hay.

The YouTube was posted by Wendell Capili.

But,if you're thinking about my baby it don't matter

If you're black

or white.
oh no, alright
Ooh, Ooh
Alright
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Now
Alright , alright
Ooh, Ooh
Shomon
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah Now
Alright
Ooh, Ooh

Mis-Mapped

Amnesty International came up with this pictographic map to show that the world has always been in war. It was an impressive map except for the part which I cut out. Click to enlarge. Aren't those Bontoc gong dancers? What are they doing in South America?

Read it Somewhere

Wikipedia is like hearing a great story in a bar:

You hope it’s true, but never bother confirming it.

Ms. Jolie, Ms. Winehouse and Mr. Tarantino Kiss You G'night

Bad collagen injections
by Dr. Calayan

Post

Disturbing Lab Rats

Two things I learned about lab rats this week which I hope could be applicable to human rats as well. Because, what's the point of having lab rats when you cna't equate them later to humans? One is, obese lab rats don't get malaria. The other is that the cleaner the cage, the more chances that a lab rat would become a cannibal.

Freezing Kobe Beef

Ex-NY Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy discusses how to freeze Kobe Bryant. Spurs can use this from New York Times. The thing is to dis-triangulate him.

U2 Me are Everything

When we first saw the cover, we knew that he might be the boy from "Boy." But what is that hideous thing he's wearing?

Now, at least we know what that really was

Spurshhhht

A friend came to watch the Second Game of the Lakers-Spurs with me wearing a Duncan jersey. He had to change clothes after the first half. No matter what the Spurs said about the first game, they're not true. They have not recovered and may not when they go home for Game 3. All the military strategies went bonkers after Kobe beat them mentally. That was arrogance and no locker speech prepared them against it. One, it's not a virtue like sportsmanship and unity. It just is. And tonight when Manu would be sleeping later (if he can sleep at all), he would be dreaming of this guy kicking his ass and singing "Imagine" on AI:

Last Order of Bukowski for the Night

The Baggao Leg

There is someone missing a leg in Cagayan right now. A farmer in Tallang Barangay in Baggao, Cagayan found yesterday a half of an entire leg of a person with parts of jeans on. Baggao Police Chief Senior Inspector Pedro Martinez said that the leg was found in a corn field inside a white plastic bag. He said that some Tallang residents saw some men throw the bag but they thought that they were just throwing garbage until a farmer saw the leg.
Police found a name with a cell number contact in the pocket of the halved pants. The name in the paper was that of Roland Mamauag. A routine check from Friendster showed that there is a Dr. Mamauag who resides in Isabela. There are also tattoos printed "SRB" and "GINAD" on the leg

Why I Twittered

The earthquake made me do it. Right after the Sichuan earthquake, there was a dearth of true information on it. But updates in real time were coming from Twitter. Now if only i can understand Chinese. Most of the more reliable data came from these Twitters. Problem is there were still less than a million people who are public Twitter users.

Book Lover's Heaven

If you are a writer or simply a book lover, your mecca should be the Lello Bookstore or Livraria Lello in Porto, Portugal. I have not been there but I already memorized the address: Rua das Carmelitas 144, Porto. Older than Baguio (opened in 1906), it has an Art Nouveau facade. Its red staircase, stained-glass ceiling with 'vecus et labore' and the bronze Portuguese literary figures (when is Saramago going to be placed on the pedestal?) must be a delight. If you can, get your own book and just drop it among the books so you can casually say, "Well, you can also get my book at Lello."

Premature

To define "premature ejaculation," the scientists took it long and slow. It took them 65 years to pore through 100 studies on P.E. before they ejaculated the definition as:
1) Ejaculation that always or nearly always occurs prior to or within about one minute of vaginal penetration.
2) The inability to delay ejaculation on all or nearly all vaginal penetrations.
3) Negative personal consequences such as distress, bother, frustration and/or the avoidance of sexual intimacy.
Now read Nash's follow up on the PE babies at the comment below

He likes to peel the labels from his bottles of Bud

I know someone who collects beer labels. Inspired, as we all are, with Sheryl Crow singing, "I like a good beer buzz early in the morning/ And Billy likes to peel the labels/ From his bottles of Bud/ He shreds them on the bar/ Then he lights every match in an oversized pack/ Letting each one burn down to his thick fingers...
These are the beer labels he really wanted.

Airline

Remember that time when the little town of Boac, Marinduque had its own airline with British stewardesses to boot?

Wedding Before the Earthquake

You must have seen the photos of the wedding in Pongzho, Sichuan when the earthquake came to break it all up including the 100-year-old church. No? Then see this. Also because you are looking at the virtual notebook of a journalist, it would be wise to look at the comments regarding Photoshop, being too technical-minded and what would happen to the hospital where the bride would deliver her baby.

Sounds of (Un)Silence

We all remember this classic album of Simon & Garfunkel. But we were also thinking even then: why do they look so worried. Now 40 years later, we now know why:

Welcome Cuba

Cuba's wired.
I admire Fidel Castro and the Cubans who stayed and I now hope Friendster get to them first.

Spur(n)s

The Spurs were on a roll with a ten point lead at the half, then even a 20-point spread sometime in the third. They were cruising and Kobe was watching. Then he played and the Spurs were Stapled at Staples Center. From 3 points (only because he took only three shots) in the 1st half to 27 at the end of the game, Kobe showed the Spurs THE DOOR.

Newest Phone Model

Another from Joey T:

Terno in Session Road

Expect Joey Tiomico to do a Danny Dolor. Here's his newest dig: Fashionista in Session Road.
The good doctor wrote:

The woman garbed in Filipiniana is the grand dame of the Macayan and Andres family of (QM Subd.) Baguio City. They used to stay at the Laperal Building. Nowadays, you would no longer see one gliding down Session in this outfit. Pwede pa naka-feather boa on a tube top and black leather mini skirt, black knee-high boots, fishnet stockings, naka-maskara on the eyes only (a la Batman & Robin) and a whip to complete the get-up.

Why Rumours Customers Live Long