January 2014

I don’t have anything planned to say, I just wanted to blog. Right now it’s Sunday and the wife and boy are at her parent’s house where all the relatives are as well. I will be joining them later in the afternoon or when I am summoned whichever comes first.

I wanted to say how happy I am at how things are at the moment. Of course everything can theoretically be better, but that’s just negativity talking. For sure though things can get worse, I’ve been there often enough to know that to be true.

It’s hard not to gush as a first time Dad would at Ace’s progression these past months. He’ll be 8 months this 15th and he is as round and cute as ever with the added ability of now being more interactive with those around him. He is just a step shy from starting to crawl after which he will eventually walk and then run, an event his months older cousin is starting to show as well. The minutes I spend with him urging him to crawl at our other empty condo with play tiles for this purpose, or just walking around the swimming pool make me happy and content. He has filled our lives with happiness just by being around and when I look at him I marvel not only at him but also at that amazing fact.

Continue reading January 2014

What’s Going On With Me

Yup, I’m breaking month long blog silence to write what’s up. Not that there’s anything earthshaking, just felt like it. So here goes.

  • I’m using Blogo, a Mac based (naks) blog writing tool that helps make updating blog(s) easier. It works vis xmlrpc.php which both wordpress and drupal has, so it’s a great fit for me. Got this via jen and it’s the first time I’m trying it, so am hoping it’ll work out the box.
  • I’m very good with the Mac now, which is a 3 year old iBook G4 running 10.4.11 (yes I know what those things mean now). I’ve learned all the important shortcut keys and figured out pretty much how to get around quickly without the mouse (I’ve always disliked mice, esp. trackpads). So two major observations: OneI love the fact running, using and installing things is almost exactly like a Linux distro (albeit a very very good and polished one), and Two the idea that this is ‘easy to use and understand’ or at least easier than Windows is lost on me. I’ve encountered and fixed some technical issues in the few weeks I’ve owned this thing that I’m sure would’ve made a typical user cry in frustration.

Continue reading What’s Going On With Me

This is a personal blog, so I’ll go all personal..

.. and admit to the many many readers of this blog (all two of them), that I am unsure of what to do re the kids I used to coach. As I explained two posts ago (go on, scroll down before you continue reading this), we broke off our relationship on a terrible note. Primarily I was sore at a particular kid for not coming when I was calling out to him, effectively turning his back on me. This made my blood boil. I have had 3 coaches in my life, and I would never, ever ever ever in any situation no matter how bad, turn away from them. I would question them, beg and cajole and get snooty and bratty at them, but NEVER turn my back on them.

But on the other hand, they’re just kids (14 – 17). I neglected to mention that previous to the altercation that started the whole affair, that I was pretty sore at them for not following my instructions. I taught them pick and roll drills over and over, but they couldn’t, they wouldn’t execute. MY GOD I felt so frustrated, and I made sure they heard me when I told them so.

Continue reading This is a personal blog, so I’ll go all personal..

I’m Coaching the 14-17 yr old boys Basketball Inter Village again

We’ll be known as the Clippers for some odd reason, and first practice is 7am Sat. I’m super excited primarily because it’s the same boys I’m coaching save for a few who’ve gotten older since last year, and secondarily because, secretly, I really wanna get back at the Blue team which beat us by a hair the last time.

As if I’m not busy enough.

Ack, no matter. The game has given me so much, but it has also taken so much as well. I would’ve thought that I’d have stopped learning now, years after the times when I was any good, and when I thought I could’ve contributed the most. If anything, I’ve learned playing it is essentially a selfish thing compared to coaching it. Consequently if there’s any reason why I’m not interested in playing it anymore, its because teaching it, coaching it and sharing it is a thousand times more fulfilling than playing it.

So there. Lesson learned. And more to come, it seems. At any rate, all basketball talk aside, if and when those boys need me, they know I’m just a knock on our door away.

Yay.

Today is a milestone day for the Exchanges, which I’ll extend to my person, if it doesn’t mind, as well. I just had a meeting that I’d never thought would’ve happened if I didn’t have my notes and their calling cards on my left breast pocket as proof. A meeting with the kind of people and the kind of topic that I’d have only dreamed about, and if you’d have told me would happen a month ago I’d have told you you were talking nonsense.

No it’s not Google or anything even close, but to me its a big step forward. I’m really sorry for not being able to talk about it directly, but I figure its good logic and business sense to keep my mouth shut, at least till things are on black and white.

Continue reading Yay.

On Keeping Focus

I worked all day on a special project for Kikay and as I write this I’ve spent approximately 20 minutes staring at the Internet wondering what else to do before the inevitably similar day tomorrow. Within that 20 minutes I finally wrote a ‘spiel’ to send to people interested in advertising at Mom Exchange, whose instructions I finalized a few days ago, no doubt again similar to this one in terms of busyness (yes another invented word. I just like making them up so shoot me).

At any rate, herewith are random thoughts from my vegged out mind minutes away from going beddy night night.

On my bedside is the marvelous One Hundred Years Of Solitude by – need I say who wrote it but I’ll say it anyway why not – Gabriel Garcia Marquez. A book which in my opinion, he probably wrote whilst on a perpetual narcotic induced high. Because Jesus H Christ, how could someone write something so magnificent as that. It’s the sort of thing you kind of drone on throughout, turning page after page before you realize that what seemed initially like a continuous tide of ill connected events is actually starting to frame itself into a story which is, without you knowing it, taking you on a ride.

Continue reading On Keeping Focus

I reckon Tuesday is as good a day as any *(updated)

to get my license renewed.

So off I go.

1.5 hours later:

ahhhm back!

and once again, plagued by the inefficiencies of the LTO / my bad luck with official documents of any nature per se.

As per the LTO, it all started last year when I was trying to update the address on my card – type driver’s license, which helps as an ID when you’re trying to cash checks or whatever.

Continue reading I reckon Tuesday is as good a day as any *(updated)

Jill Takes The Bar

Jill is finally about to take the bar this Sunday and 3 Sundays after that. So before anything else, and to confirm what I’ve always told her, I will write here exactly what I’ve said and will always say: I am proud of you honey, you have done your best to prepare for this and I have no doubt in my mind that you will ace it, and that is not just boyfriend talk believe me.

Jill is one of those highly intelligent people that still do not completely understand what she’s capable of. For example she is obviously a closet geek, outwardly shunning ‘techie things’ when in fact she’s hooked on Karen my laptop, has realized the value of an iPod when she started living by herself at the dorm, and is completely hooked on GPRS. Aside from that, she knows how to handle HTML without an editor. I mean, beat that right? I taught her most of the html basics for the posts on Kikay but for the most part, she relies on using the WordPress GUI to produce her posts and then Photoshops her own images. That takes skill honey, so embrace your inner geekness and admit it so I can teach you CSS and you can fix some of Kikay’s flaws :)

At any rate I thought I was going to make like the good boyfriend and hang out in front of DLSU all day in support, but after two consecutive Bar Ops I think I’ve fully grasped the uselessness of such an endeavour. It’s obvious to me for example, that the most important thing is for the Barristers to get as much peace, quiet and rest as possible. If there’s anything they don’t know yet at that time, it’s clearly too late to learn anyway. Also, the last thing I wanna do is impose on her by making her worry about having to meet me before or after the whole shebang, and even if we do meet afterwards, she’s gonna be too knocked out anyway. I understand, being a College thing, how easy it is for things like these to become slumber parties, but it’s plainly obvious to keep these things as simple as possible. These people have enough on their minds as it is and the best thing to do is also the easiest: don’t get in their way.

Continue reading Jill Takes The Bar