UNC down, Duke rises

As expected, UNC (18-1, 3-1 ACC) tumbled down the college basketball rankings with the surprising loss to lowly Maryland. They were tops on both the AP and ESPN polls for the first 10 weeks. They've gone down to 5th and 4th places on both charts, respectively.

Their heated nemesis, the Duke Blue Devils (15-1, 3-0 ACC), moved up to 4th (AP) and 3rd (ESPN). It's the first time Duke was ahead of North Carolina in this season's rankings.

Super Bowl XLII: New England Patriots vs. New York Giants

With the Patriots and Giants winning their respective conference championships today, we're going to have a pretty damn nice Super Bowl matchup.

New England beat the Giants on the last day of the regular season, 38-35, en route to finishing with a flawless 16-0 record.

Maryland upsets (1)North Carolina

The unranked Maryland Terrapins pulled off a monumental upset over the top-ranked UNC Tar Heels with a 82-80 win at Chapel Hill.

The loss will likely end UNC's reign atop the college basketball rankings. Still, UNC should remain a top 5 team despite the setback.

TBDM week

It's been one exhausting week at work. 2008 is only a couple of weeks old yet I think I've logged in about ten 12-hour workdays already.

It's been an interesting and entertaining week though as I had to sit down through a lot of performance assessment calibration sessions.

They were downright tiring, but meaningful nonetheless.

We're Brothers Forever

Move over William Hung, we have a new American Idol sensation. Oh yeah, did I mention he's pinoy?

Check out and enjoy Renaldo Lapuz.

(1)UNC 83, Georgia Tech 82

The way their seasons are going, North Carolina came into Atlanta looking for an easy blowout win. They barely escaped with one.

The top-ranked Tar Heels edged the Yellow Jackets, 83-82, on a last second defensive stance anchored on a Tyler Hansbrough block off a Zack Peacock shot.

The All-American junior topscored for the Heels with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

UNC remains unbeaten (18-0, 3-0 ACC), while Georgia Tech is still searching for its first league win (7-9, 0-3 ACC).

ABL going down?

The 2008 ABL Season started last weekend and for the first time in like 6 years, I'm not playing by choice. I skipped last season due to injury. I was still recovering from my ACL reconstruction surgery.

Judging from this season's turnout, I think the ABL has lost its appeal especially to the veterans. Year in and year out, Ateneans would play the same faces again and again. At some point, you just get bummed out and lose interest. To add fuel to the fire, a lot of 'open' leagues have surfaced and these are a lot more interesting compared to the ABL, which is limited to current Ateneans and their alumni. My guess is those who want a little more challenge and competition would elect to try it out in the open leagues.

I noticed there's also a lot less sponsors now than in the past seasons. I'm thinking they're not getting much ROI with their investments so it's not beneficial anymore.

I dunno if the ABL will ever get its mojo back. It has become a victim of its own success. It's just not that exciting anymore.

From the corporate grapevine

I just heard some intriguingly interesting news. Seems like a lot of people are dying to become HR business partners and join our team.

Now, whether they actually get in is a totally different story.

Oooh, I love this job.

One perk of living along a major thoroughfare is... you get to witness massive accidents!

I went down to check on a huge crash early this morning, around 2:30 am. Though I didn't see it happen, the loud bang made me want to snoop around the accident site. Not sure on the details, but I think a pedicab counterflowing via a U-turn slot was the main culprit.

The end result? Two totalled cars and a bunch of wrecked concrete barriers. Good thing there were no serious injuries to anyone.

Inked for more

Since I wasn't able to get a tattoo for 2007, I decided to start early this year.

I just had some ink done today, adding a bit of modification to a prior tattoo. I was supposed to get the old tat retouched, but I had to beg off because I couldn't take the pain anymore. It was just stinging too bad even the new additions didn't get finished.

I'm looking to get the second session done in about 3-4 weeks.

Annual Quiapo death march

It puzzles me how devotees can manage to take part in the annual Black Nazarene procession in Quiapo knowing that they can be one of the yearly casualties at the said event.

It never fails. Numerous people die and even more get injured just by attending the procession. The culprit? Exhaustion, extreme heat and a chaotic stampede.

I know Catholicism is huge in the country, but this is something I will never be able to understand.

Sink or swim?

With the latest big-name defection plus the additional center-wide org structure changes, I will not be surprised if it's downhill from hereon forth.

Some Australian kid is the latest fool to challenge Tiger Woods' supremacy on the links. Reports say that 19-year-old Jason Day said that he's sure he can take him down.

Stupidity displayed at its finest. Oh and I heard this kid's half-Filipino.

Just another one of them idiot hybrid pinoys.

(1)UNC improves to 16-0

UNC wins it's 16th straight game, routing UNC-Asheville, 93-81. The top-ranked Tar Heels (16-0, 1-0 ACC) finished it's nonconference regular season schedule with a perfect 15-0 mark.

Watch as All-American Tyler Hansbrough slam his way to the hoop over Division I's tallest player, 7'7 giant Kenny George.



Enjoy.

Fucked up queue

I had the worst experience at Mcdonald's Katipunan last night. I was waiting in line for a solid 25 minutes. The store looked way understaffed.

Never in the hundreds of times I've eaten there did I ever have to wait that long.

Oh yeah, did I mention it happened at 11pm?

Wayne's World; (1)UNC over (19)Clemson, 90-88

Watch Wayne Ellington drill a gamewinning trey with 0.4 seconds remaining as the top-ranked Tar Heels win over a very determined Clemson squad.

The talented sophomore shot 11-19 from the field, making 5 of 8 from downtown, en route to a career high 36 points.

UNC remains unbeaten at 15-0 (1-0 ACC), while the Tigers drop to 12-2 (0-1 ACC).



Sweet.

PBB for the poor

With Ruben Gonzaga topping Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2, the show has officially proved that it's a charity event more than anything. Like the other PBB winners, Ruben obviously seems like the most financially-challenged among the final four.

I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve it. Maybe he does. But I ain't a fan of charitable reality shows. It's a game, not some fundraising project for the pityful.

Five down

So TMac goes down again and brings my fantasy team along. I've lost 5 straight now and my record dips below .500 (4-5).

As of this writing, I'm leading in week 10 so hopefully I catch a break and get a much-needed dubya.


Fantasy going .500

You know the holidays are over 'cause it's way too easy to get around the metro again. It's been hell the past couple of weeks.

Welcoming the New Year without a bang

I spent the New Year in the most unconventional way --- alone.

My mom went off for a short holiday leaving me to spend the last few days of 2007 alone. It's not that I didn't have alternatives. I had choices on where to go and party but I decided to hibernate from all the noise and chaos, and just stick it out at home to watch television.

It wasn't so bad after all.

Happy New Year! Here's to an amazing 2008, cheers!