Endless Line

Ipahintulot mong ako'y mapahandusay

…sa sumasaibayong kaginhawaan.

***

Until two weeks ago, I had never imagined myself becoming a banker. I dunno, finance isn’t really among my interests given how badly I suck at numerical stuff. But a banking job is supposed to be one of the most reliable careers out there and my parents cannot be less vocal about how they want me to pursue it. So here I am, eighteen hours away from signing the job offer to become a member of BPI’s Officership Training Program for 2011.

OTP is basically a management trainee program – you undergo eight months of training, after which you become at least a bank officer if not an assistant manager. Each year more than a hundred applicants go through four interviews and two exams to qualify for the program, but only a handful make the cut. BPI’s OTP is supposed to be one of the best management trainee programs in the banking industry, and the salary is competitive as well; while it’s nowhere near HSBC’s 35K, it’s higher than the 21K salary from my first job offer made by another local bank.

All in all, OTP is a great opportunity. It’s just that deep inside, I’m not sure if this is the life I want for myself. My mouth wrote so many checks during my interviews, and even though I have no doubt that my head and my hands can cash them, I don’t know if this is where my heart truly is. I have never liked numbers. I can deal with them by being industrious, but I don’t enjoy them at all. Haha, to put it simply, I am not Gboi. ^_^

I ask myself where my heart really is, and whenever I answer ‘writing’ or ‘NBA’, ‘MMA’, ‘DotA’ or ‘big cat conservation’, I have to swallow. Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t born an Ayala or a Sy. I can’t be a professional blogger, sports fan or wildlife conservationist. I have to think of my own financial stability first. When I have enough of my own money to not care about money, maybe that’s when I can start chasing my real dreams.

For now, I have to keep in mind the words that have kept me going for the last three years. I can’t always do what makes me happy, but I should always do what is rational. I didn’t like Econ but I managed to graduate with honors, and that’s what I am going to do with my banking career.

***

On a lighter note, the Mavs won Game 1 against OKC this morning. Dirk was even more terrific than usual, setting a new record for most consecutive free throws during a playoff game (23, formerly 21 by Paul Pierce). JJ Barea showed how hard he can drive to the basket (that little guy is fearless!) and Jason Terry crowned himself king of downtown.

However, it was alarming to see how bad the Mavs’ defense was, and how the team actually doesn’t have a player to legitimately match with Russell Westbrook. The Mavs only did great this game because their offense was working, but if they hit a rough offensive patch, Westbrook can destroy them single-handedly like Wade did. Er, I actually have a bad feeling about this.

MaxLawiIanGboiMarkJeff

So we went to Cavite yesterday and I forgot about my phone all morning because as everyone in my family knows, Auntie Lik doesn't hold anything back with her cuisine when we're there. :) However, when I finally remembered Georges (Yes, my current phone is named after gorgeous Georges St-Pierre, though a lot of times I wish I named him Cas after Supernatural's Castiel), there were eleven unread messages, and half of them were about the same topic.

Max: One game closer to one thousand pesos. ;)

Lawi: ZOMG

Ian: 0-3! woot woot!

Gboi: Nic, 0-3 na Mavs. x2ha panalo na cla nyan.

Mark: Dana. 0-3 na!

Jeff: I don't freakin believe it.

***

So it's 0-3 now, and though I'm as astounded as everyone else that Dallas looks like they're actually gonna be able to pull this off, I'm still not counting the Lakers out.

First, no NBA team has ever gotten out of a 0-3 rut, true, but if there's a team that would be the first one to do so, the Lakers are on top of my list. Whatever happens, they have Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant, and those two are capable of doing the most impossible things on earth because they're that GREAT. In defense of LA's last loss, they didn't have two of their big men - Ron Artest, who was suspended for whacking poor little JJ Barrea in Game 2, and Pau Gasol, who seems to currently be having an out of the body (or out of the mind) experience.

Second, Dallas does have that annoying habit of blowing off big-lead games. No one needs further examples.

Still, I won't be complaining if the Mas end up winning. :)

I Love This Game. :)

Sekou Smith is quickly becoming one of my favourite NBA writers. This week he dished ‘The Other Main Event’, where he basically explains why although Celtics vs Heat has the limelight now, we mustn’t forget the West Conference, where what Smith describes as an equally interesting match-up is taking place: Dirk Nowitzki vs. Pau Gasol for Best Tender European Seven Footer. If I were the average NBA fan I won’t really care, but because I’m a die-hard Dirk Nowitzki fan, I care like it means the world. ^_^

Smith posted the following poll:

The results of which I had to have a hand in, of course!

And I swear I did not vote more than 2,000 times. :)

***

However, it was the comments that drove me crazy. I swear, these guys are even crazier than the guys at VFDC and Sherdog, but they do make sense:

Gary says: Pau will own Dirk because his length forces Dirk to drive then Bynum will block or alter the shot.

rene mirambil says: bakit pag aari ba ni pau si dirk?

HeatRing2012 says: @gary: yeah – just like LeMarcus Aldridge with his length “owned” Dirk – right? For your info: LMA is a much better Dirk defender than Gasol is.

Benjamin Ladha says: Exactly Gary, Dirk and that jump shot cannot be stopped. He will shoot and score over a bigger or smaller guy. Plus no one will force Dirk to drive except Dirk. He settles for that jumper almost everytime- because he chooses to and because it cannot be stopped. He is like Kobe in that respect- that fallaway is unstoppable. I have to ask have you ever watched him play? Either a Laker fan or a Mav/Dirk hater

L337 says: Dirk is a Lone Star. Pau has Kobe. And in case you didnt know. Dirk is 1 out of 4 players in NBA history to average 25 ppg 10rpg in the course of his career but never he has been credited. I don’t know why, Cause he’s that good. I give this one to Dirk.

LAKERFAN_88 says: PLAYER ADVANTAGE: DIRK. TEAM ADVANTAGE: LAKERS!!!

kulangot says: Dirk Nowitzki is a basketball genius he will find ways to score…Im sure Lakers will have tough defense on him but dont forget he has average 10+ free throw attempts vs Portland every game.The problem now of Dallas is how to match Bynum.

Kenny says: They look like brothers! HAHA

kier says: well, different player with different team….offensively Dirk is better than Pau.. defensively Pau is way better than dirk… but Pau has better teamates than dirk…….and…………… thats the story of the game…^ ^

***

As I said, even if I love the Mavs to death, I just can’t realistically see them getting past the Lakers. I actually bet one grand for the Lakers in 6, although that move is kind of a psych on myself. If the Lakers win, I win because I bet on them. If the Mavs win, I still win because they’re my favourite team! ^_^

As Gboi said, it’s 2-0 now and WOW doesn’t even cover it. However, I’m not counting the Lakers out even a bit, given that they have Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant, plus the Mavs to have a history of blowing off a 2-0 lead and dropping 4 straight.

***

I love this pic.


Dirk Nowitzki, no defense as usual (I mean, dude can’t even defend the ball). Ron Artest, I-Will-Die-To-Snatch-This-Ball-Away-From-Dirk-Nowitzki Mode. And most epic of all, Pau Gasol, self-demoted to observer status. :)

Wow. Just wow.

- I totally agree. However, Ron Artest isn't really a consistent player - I mean, like AK47 and Mehmet Okur, sometimes he does so great and sometimes he's just pathetic - unlike Bryant or Nash or James or Wade, each of who always has a hand in their team's victory. Crossing my fingers that Artest hits a 'pathetic' patch. ;p

"The Lakers have the edge in every category and they own home-court advantage."

Chickadees! ^_^

Two chicks (as in baby chickens) mysteriously found their way into our backyard today. It's really weird  because although we do have chickens roaming around at home, the chickens are all male. So where those two chicks came from is really a mystery.

I'm actually used to having 'farm animals' at home because we've always had them since I was a kid. See, my father's family has a farm and he feels a sort of attachment to farm animals. We actually had turkeys, ducks, goats and sheep once (but not all at the same time), but chickens are as staple as dogs to us, and they roam around as freely as our dogs (much to my father's delight and my mother's annoyance because they destroy her garden plants).

It actually isn't the first time that we're going to raise week-old chicks. When my sister was five, she saw a vendor peddling those colored-chicks (like Buddy Feps' Consuelo) and convinced my mom to buy her three chicks, which she named Alexander, Whitey and Jude respectively. We took care of the chicks - we housed them in our old bird cage (which used to contain four lovebirds I set free in the name of humanitarianism), gave them ground corn to eat and set them free once a day so they can roam around and exercise. At night we'd get the portable fluorescent bulb from my dad's shop and put it in their cage so they wouldn't get cold.

Alexander, Whitey and Jude all turned out to be male White Leghorns, and even though they looked all the same to me, my sister knew who was who. When they were too big for the cage we set them free in the backyard. They were already very tame then, so they really didn't give us a problem. The loved my sister a lot and they would come around and follow her every time she went out. Mind you, they all died of old age because we loved them too much to even consider eating them.

There was also that time when a friend of my dad's gave him a dozen 45 Days chicks as a gift for his coming birthday, saying he could cook them later. We raised those chicks the same way we raised Alexander, Whitey and Jude, but we didn't name them because when you have identical white chickens, names are pointless. When the week of my dad's birthday came my mom asked if he wanted the chickens slaughtered for meat, but my dad looked at her like she was crazy. He said that his day wasn't complete without seeing those twelve chickens roaming around. Those twelve nameless chickens also died natural deaths.

We haven't named the chicks yet because they're so young that we can't even tell if they're male or female, but I have a hunch that both are male. One has darker tufts than the other, (though based on experience, the color of the tufts doesn't necessarily indicate the color of the feathers later) but because we found the chicks together I'm assuming that they're brothers. So I'm thinking about naming them Sam and Dean from Supernatural, or Alan and Charlie from Two and a Half Men, or Carl and Thomas from Zoids, or Terrorblade and Magina from Dota, or Pau and Marc (Gasol! ^_^) from NBA, or even Vegeta and Tarble from Dragon Ball.

See, I like brothers. And chickens. ^_^

How Many Times Must My Heart Break For You

In the end, I can only ask myself how many times my heart must break for this team.

Seriously, what kind of team leads the finals series 2-0 and ends up losing, or starts the playoffs as top seeds and proceeds to be eliminated by the last seeded team, or adds Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion to a roster that already has Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Terry, and JJ Barrea and comes up with nothing at all?

Or how about now. I was expecting the Mavs to get eliminated in the next round by the Lakers (I’m being realistic here), but I guess they won’t even get to see Phil Jackson’s kids because the Blazers look like they’re the ones who are gonna advance to the second round.

And seriously, I ask myself what kind of sane person would support a team that is this disappointing.

The loyal kind of fan. That’s what. And that’s what I am. That’s what I have been for the last nine years. And that’s what I will continue to be as long as this team has Dirk Nowitzki in its roster and has Mark Cuban as its owner.

Tomorrow, there’s gonna be a 3 in the scoreboard. It might be 3-2 or 2-3. In the future I might see a 3-3, and later a 2-4 or a 4-3 or a 3-4 or a 4-2. But whatever the numbers turn out to be, I know that only two digits will matter in the end.

41.

Go, Mavericks!

I don't know which is scarier.

1. The fact that today is the deadline of grade submission for graduating students, it's almost 8pm and I still don't have a grade in Econ 141. Not that I'm still hoping that I'll actually pass the subject and graduate.

2. The fact that yesterday when I went to the mall with my cousin, I actually considered buying a five hundred peso men's magazine just because Georges Fucking St-Pierre was on the cover.

3. The fact that I dreamt about Axe the Mogul Khan and I woke up all sweaty. At this point, should anybody really be asking why?

You decide.