On Boxing and Family Gatherings

Obviously, by "boxing" I refer to yesterday's Pacquiao-Morales showdown. I must say that, for us, and I suspect for many others out there as well, every Pacquiao match has always been a family affair. Yesterday it was a reunion of sorts, because my sister came over with her boyfriend (and
soon-to-be husband) to watch the fight with us.

Some of us woke up early. My uncle and my grandfather were, I think, up as early as 8AM. Not me, though. I woke up around 11 or so. Pacman's match was the main event, so I figured it wouldn't start as early as 8 in the morning because there were sure to be some supporting cards. Sure enough, when I woke up sometime 11AM, Viloria was the one fighting.

And I will say this of that match: It friggin' bored me to death! My dad nearly fell asleep on the sofa. We had both hurled diatribes at Viloria (as if he could actually hear a word of our rebukes) for refusing to let his punches out, merely standing there taking all of Romero's swings, or doing little useless jigs that didn't get him any points at all. We'd concluded that all he was doing was waiting to release a single powerful punch that would take Romero down. As it was, he didn't get lucky. Like the commentator said, things like that just happen. You cannot make it your one single goal.  If you're lucky enough to find an opening, you can make it happen. But it's not a guarantee. Viloria was lucky he got a draw.

I wasn't able to watch the next fight between Torres and Arnaoutis. I was cooking lunch. I only got glimpses which made me think Arnaoutis had the upper hand, but then it was Torres who won. My dad said that fight was so much better to watch than Viloria's.

Then came the much-awaited main event, the conclusion of the Pacquiao-Morales trilogy. I had heard that a lot of people were placing their bets on Morales, and I couldn't think why. Did they even take a good look at him? His body looked so thin and frail. Anyone who lost that much weight in such a short time is bound to be weaker than he used to be because his body has not fully adjusted to the sudden weight change. I think that if the fight had been much later, perhaps next year, Erik Morales might have built some more needed muscle. I also think a few tune-up fights should've been in order before jumping smack into a match with someone as strong and as fast as Manny Pacquiao. But I guess, Morales just did not have enough time. Yesterday I declared that I believed the only way Erik Morales could win is if he got so desperate as to be running on sheer adrenaline and willpower alone. And if that happened, he'd probably drop like a log right afterwards, out cold and dead to the world.

It was funny, we all had our guesses as to which round the fight would last until. But man, we were on our toes by the first round, my dad nearly knocked the TV down in the 2nd round, and I was screaming "Round 3! Round 3!" at the end of the 3rd round. I must say, though, that my heart did go out to Erik Morales somehow, sitting there looking so lost. I happen to think he's cute, if not for that incongruous nose of his.

My other sister claimed that she'd been thinking it might only get up to round 3 judging by the way Morales looked. Oh well. I'm just glad we always opt to watch the delayed telecast at home; if we'd had pay-per-view or been to any of the places having live fight promos, it would've
been like, "I friggin' paid ### bucks only to get 3 rounds???" =P

hoping to get lucky

Well, I just started another blog on blogspot, primarily because it supports google adsense, and I'm hoping I could make something out of that, you know.

It doesn't hurt to try.

…and greetings from netopia!

True to my word, I went off to find an Internet cafe with a much more efficient connection. I am now at Netopia — in SM, get that. I feel like I'm mall-hopping or something. Dang, Netopia's pretty expensive too compared to the other cafes…50 cents per minute…I am at 30 mins or so now and it's already 20 pesos. Most cafes out there charge only 20-25 an hour. But well, I'm here now and I have no choice.

I'm just blogging to pass the time actually as I'm crushing and soaking ingredients for a potion (Neopets plot haha!). I actually wanted to go to Bo's, grab a coffee, and start some more writing, but I ended up here…well one coffee's like 2 hours worth of Internet time at Netopia so…

If there's something I hate about internet cafes, it's the noisy gamers who can't keep their mouth shut when they're playing. They get so goddamn excited they start shouting all over the place. I really appreciate those cafes that really separate the surfers from the gamers…god knows there are so few of them…so that at least those seriously surfing/researching/blogging/simply lurking around the Net do not get disturbed. Gamers — just lump them all together in a room, they don't care if they're all screaming at the top of their lungs once they get lost in a game.

Grrr, the person in the cubicle in front of me seems a little too frisky…whoever it is moves too much about that my monitor is dancing before my very eyes. (Will you freakin' stop moving around too much???) Argh, damn it! Must…get…my own…computer!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I love this template, but if my sidebar doesn't get fixed soon, I am going to CHANGE IT AGAIN. Why is this new calliope version making my blogging life miserable???

greetings from metro cafe

Yes, I am at an internet cafe. Quite a public one, too. I mean, some cafes do at least offer some sort of little privacy…you know, no people peeking over your back trying to read your blog entry??? (Hey, buzz off, buddy.)

I am, specifically, at Metro Cafe at the basement of Metro Ayala in Ayala Center Cebu. Hmm that was a long one and sounded painfully repetitive, but anyways. I was here earlier coz my sis and I treated the younger kids and my parents to lunch (my little sister got an academic award at school, so the big sisters have to treat…never had this when I was younger!). My plans for today were actually just to hang out at a cafe and write my manuscript — my uber-unfinished-revised-several-times-over fantasy novel(?) — but I had this urge to play Neopets, as I am currently participating in a plot, though I'm sure if you're not a Neopet player you would so NOT understand. When I got down here the computers were full, so I ordered a Cafe Mocha (which sucked, by the way! I swear, where the hell was the mocha in that thing??? And I paid 70 bucks for it!!!) and sat at a table to start revising (again!) my chapter one. Well, I've written 2 pages and there was an available computer so I decided to take a break and login to Neopets. I think I've got a sore neck from all that manual writing. Anyways, now I find I still cannot do anything with my Haunted Woods plot because the friggin' connection is intermittent and the browser's Flash plugin is so horribly outdated I keep getting error messages and my browser zonks out. BUt well since I've come online anyway I decided to just rant. So here I am ranting.

first time ko!

First time ko ma-ospital. Ever. It's true.

I was confined to the hospital from Nov. 2nd to the 7th, that's 6 days — no, five, as I got admitted on the afternoon of the 2nd and got out around lunch on November 7. So five days. Almost a week. And guess what I got in there for? Friggin' dengue fever. Sabi ko nga, first time ko. ü

It started on October 30th, my fever. And it just kept coming back. Well I never imagined it to be dengue, you know. It was the farthest thing from my mind. I knew nalipasan ako ng gutom, I was quite sure of that and quite convinced that that was the reason I felt so weak and I kept throwing up every hour. On the third day of constant recurring fever and nausea, I was at the point of collapse, and my mom decided it was really about time to go see a doctor. The doctor took one look at me and said I had to be admitted because I looked just too friggin' weak. I was bundled into a wheelchair and taken to ER from the doctor's clinic…where I had needles stuck into me. Anyways, there I was, waiting for my CBC results…after a chest x-ray they finally took me up to my private room in this really uncomfortable wheelchair…and minutes later they were rushing to quicken the flow of fluids in my dextrose — after the results came that my platelet count was down to 126 out of which should be 3000. More needles later, they confirmed it was dengue after my platelet count dropped down even more to a mere 61 (at least that's what they said) and they started warning me to be careful and let them know asap if there's any sign of bleeding whatsoever, coz then i would have to have blood transfusion if that happened. Now that scared me. I mean if it really came to that point I was scared that there might be more complications resulting from transfusion and then where would I be?

But thank GOD it didn't get to that point, as several more needles later (I swear my arm turned numb!) my platelet count started climbing back up. Hallelujah, praise God! So I finally got discharged on a Tuesday, but my tummy still felt like putty, I was disoriented and so damn tired I just wanted to take a vacation!

But now, well…I'm back at work…still taking it a bit easy but getting my strength back…hopefully. So yeah. That's the short story of my Halloween, hope you enjoyed, hehehehe!