etelz

This is my first post of the season, and I will probably try to post as often as I can to update. 

Anyway... there was a lot of changes in this year's program, but as usual, Hollywood week was just as tough. There were the early favorites, and some of those didn't make the top 24, erm, 25. (That's one of the changes ^_^), and some didn't even make it to the top 13. 

So last week had the guys covering Stevie Wonder and the ladies paying tribute to Whitney Houston. One singer (I may be biased but what the heck) shined above the rest: Fil-Am Jessica Sanchez, who covered "I Will Always Love You". In my opinion, her version was way WAY better than Charice's cover. I have to say I had goosebumps while she was belting out the high notes perfectly! Gosh. Unfortunately she faltered this week, when all the contestants had to sing a song from their year of birth. This week's star was Joshua Ledet, who sang "When a Man Loves a Woman" to the judge's standing ovation. 

One of the contestants was disqualified because of previous warrants of arrests that he didn't declare during audition. Bummer. Just goes to show that appearances can be deceiving. Oh well. 

We'll see who goes home this week.

Can I just say that this is one talented bunch?

I am back with a vengeance! Well, maybe not with a vengeance, but hey, I'm back in the blogosphere. Was uber-busy with work the past month and a half, and well, there's really nothing I fancy blogging about. 

Anyway... It's the seventh of March, which means that Fire Prevention Month started seven days ago! I wouldn't have noticed that until a local fire department held a mini-parade on my way to work. 

What exactly is Fire Prevention Month? It's the annual event started by the Fire Departments at the first month of the summer season mainly for students to learn that with the heat comes the danger of fires. Ironically, the same month (March) always have the highest number of fires in the Metro. I guess that's tempting fate. Oh well. 

Soooo. Moving on. 

Wowowowow. Valentine's Day sure passed by quickly. And to think I almost didn't get to enjoy the nice surprise my husband planned for Valentine's because of an awful head splitting headache. I wasn't able to do any work at all -- and I felt like I was going to throw up at any given time. (I'm not pregnant, no.) Good thing I drank some meds and was able to hold off the headache for the night. 

Chinese New Year came and went pretty fast, too. Somehow it was a good thing that the day was declared a holiday, but one has to wonder why it was suddenly declared one. Oh well, doesn't matter to me, though. 

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It's the season of Lent for Catholics, now, and we're sort of halfway through. I pledged that I would strictly follow fasting and abstinence this season, but for the life of me I must admit that I'm having trouble with the fasting bit. But I'm managing. Only a couple more weeks to go. 

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So excited for our annual summer get-away! This year it's off to Palawan! Although half of our party has already been there (myself included), it's still going to be fun, fun, fun! We'll be visiting the Puerto Princesa Underground River -- which has already been declared one of the 7 New Wonders! Then we'll hop around islands in Honda Bay, and have a city tour of Puerto Princesa. It'll be fun! I can't wait! Gotta be ready!

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Speaking of getting ready for the beach, my husband and I have been (trying to) regularly jog and hopefully loose some of our excess weight. Maybe that's one solution for actually getting pregnant? 

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That's it for me this time. Will try to update as often as I can! :)

Yep. It's the new year and I've made my first post only 6 days into it. Something must be up. O_o anyway, on with the post. 

Before I get started, let's take a look back at my 2011: 

...

Right. Nothing exciting happened in my life in 2011. Well, there's the incident with one of my good friends where some issue just blew up and -- let's just say we know where we are in her life. Oh yeah, we celebrated our first wedding anniversary! I can't believe that it's already been a year! We celebrated by spending the night at the Marriott hotel, watched a movie in the Newport Cinemas, ate at Newport Mall... just a very basic celebration, nothing major, nothing spectacular. We preferred it that way -- we were content on spending the day(s) with each other. 

But apart from that? Not much happened in 2011. Moving on? 

I'm really, really looking forward to what 2012 will bring. I had a list of "resolutions" made way back in December, but I think that's going to change sometime soon. Will keep you updated in a later post. :)

It's the First of December and we're getting close to Christmas! ^_^ 

Yet, we're not really feeling the Christmas season, really, as it's SUPER HOT! It feels like SUMMER! O_o 

There's this issue about scrapping "Christmas" and instead going PC and saying "HOLIDAY" instead. Uhhh no. The season is because of Christmas, so LEAVE IT BE. Right? 

I've got 90% of my gift shopping done. How about you? I still have my ultimate Christmas Gift wish: 

A 13-inch Macbook Pro! :) Are you going to gift me one??? ^_^

Seriously now. 

I saw this report on the news yesterday: Bishop Arturo Bartas of Sorsogon calls for KBP to monitor the Midnight Radio Programslike Love Radio 90.7's Papa Jack TLC and Wild Confessions and Tambayan 101.9's DJ Chacha, due to the "inappropriate" language being used. He also said that instead of hosting the program, they should just play religious music. Then this morning, the morning magazine show "Umagang Kay Ganda" had the opportunity to ask the good Bishop about the issue. They asked if he had the opportunity to have listened to the programs he mentioned. 

Bishop Bartas didn't even give a direct answer. All he said was that there were reports given to him about these midnight programs that are immoral in nature. 

I mean, COME ON! O_o I listen to Papa Jack every night, to keep me company as I go to sleep. There is no way that they use inappropriate language, especially sexual innuendos. Sure, the topic of sex comes up once in a while but that is in relation to the love problems callers are asking advise for. And there is a reason why those kinds of formats are scheduled in the wee hours of the morning to avoid minors from listening to PG rated conversations. Sheesh! And if you don't like what you hear, then why don't you tune in to another radio station? You have those religious radio stations anyway, why are you bothering with those programs? Is it because they attract FAR MORE listeners than yours? 

Geez luigeez. I say stay out of it. We've already got a lot more problems than just radio programs. 

The following video was circulating the web (mainly Facebook and YouTube) a couple of days after the Pacquiao-Marquez fight. It shows that Marquez STEPPED on Manny's foot for at least 5 times (that the camera could see), which resulted in Manny cramping up, and yeah, not being able to evade Marquez's "attacks" efficiently. Well, you be the judge. 

Disclaimer: I do not own this video. The video was uploaded onto YouTube by allenbold12345. No Copyright Infringement Intended. 




Click on this link if you can't see the video above. 

Well yesterday was just interesting. 

My husband and I watched the Pacquiao - Marquez III fight over at the Powerplant Cinemas in Rockwell yesterday morning. In all honesty the undercards were ok, pretty exciting but I still thought it was very long. Then came the main event. To tell you the truth, I was all tensed up in anticipation and felt like I was the one going to be boxing for the title. 

Maria Aragon sang the Philippine National Anthem very well, albeit the obvious Westernized twang in her pronunciations. Surprisingly, Thia Meguia (American Idol Season 9, I think) sang the US National Anthem, which I thought was ironic because, well, she's admittedly Filipino. *shrugs shoulders* Oh well. 

Anyway, the entrances of the boxers were, if I may say it, sorta weird. Juan Manuel "El Dinamita" Marquez had his own Mexican band, while Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao had this old-ish guy sing Eye of the Tiger in a somewhat off key and off tempo way. He can't even reach the high notes in the song! Heck, even I could sing a better version, and I could definitely get a better score in videoke. 

Moving on. The first round showed both fighters feeling each other, no hard punches or nice combinations. Progressing into the bout, however, showed Marquez clearly dominating the fight, with Pacquiao looking like he's not in the mood to be boxing that night. 

At the end of the 12 rounds, the winner by split decision, and still champion, was Manny Pacquiao. 

We were like, "What?" and "Oh My God!"

We've thought that the decision would be in favor of Marquez. Heck, even Pacquiao thought so, too, as he walked away at the end of the 12th round. So imagine our surprise when Manny was declared the winner! I told my husband that maybe the judges saw stuff we didn't, given that we relied on the cameras which were changing POVs throughout the fight as opposed to the judges who were sitting at ringside and could see the fight up close and personal. Give it a little benefit of the doubt, if you will. 

But still. A lot of people, even boxing analysts, were disappointed with the decision. So Freddie Roach tweeted the final punchstats (see image below). What do you think?

A website called Sleeping in Airports released their annual Best and Worst Airports in the World recently, and guess which airport landed on the number one spot? 

Yeah-huh. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1 managed to score the numero uno spot in the World's Worst Airports list of 2011, from an already high place at third last year. 

Frankly, I say this is embarrassing for us Filipinos, but honestly, I am not the least bit surprised. Really. 

I have been travelling since I was a baby, and as far as I'm concerned, only NAIA charges TERMINAL FEES and IMMIGRATION FEES for departing passengers. One has to wonder, where are those fees being collected used for? I can somewhat understand if they charge FILIPINO CITIZENS only, but noooooo. They charge EVERYBODY departing. 

The NAIA Terminal 1 is 30 years old. Ticketing counters are impractically arranged, there are not enough seats for waiting passengers, there are no facilities in the check in area, you have to line up in a different counter to pay Philippine Travel Tax if you booked your flight online, the Duty Free Shops suck, toilets are dirty, foul smelling and good luck if it works. 

If I'm not mistaken, there are over PhP 8 BILLION in collected fees for the past 30 years. IF THOSE FUNDS WERE USED TO FIX THE NAIA TERMINAL 1, then the issues and controversies with regards to Terminal 3 might have been avoided. 

I wonder what PNoy is thinking about this. The airport's named after his FATHER, for crying out loud. 

There's talk about handing over the airport to the private sector. In my humble opinion, this is the only way to save face, so to speak. Private operators will have more freedom in terms of funding and budgets for renovation, maintenance and repairs. If they charge fees there won't be a difference anyway since we pay it now. 

I really, really hope we don't stay in number one next year. T_T