p-noy

makasaysayang araw. nawa'y manaig ang pambansang pagpupunyagi upang magkaroon ng tunay na pagbabago at maiahon ang naghihingalong bayan... sa ilalim ni p-noy. pagsasa-ayos ng edukasyon, imprastruktura, ekonomiya't pananalapi, pagtugon sa hinaing ng mahihirap at pagkitil sa malaon nang nakasanayang maruming pulitika - ilan lamang sa mabibigat na isyung kailangang kaharapin ng administrasyong aquino. ang lahat ng ito'y di maisasakatuparang kung walang papel na gagampanan ang taumbayan. kailangan ng aktibong pakikibahagi sa pagbangon ng ating bansa. tagumpay ang hangad ko sa anim na taon ni p-noy.

59

10 hours of play, 163 games, almost 1,000 points... what a match! the longest ever in tennis history, this match between between john isner and nicolas mahut is of epic proportion. whoever would take this match would definitely pay the price as he progresses into the tournament, especially as both of them are also playing doubles. whatever will be the final result, this one might never happen again, and a historic feat for both players.

rebranding

Bad boy’s out in rebranding of Rafael Nadal

By Paul Majendie

LONDON, June 22 (Reuters Life!) - Shakira leans over and croons to Rafael Nadal “I’m a gyspy, are you coming with me? I might steal your clothes and wear them if they fit me.”

The Spanish tennis star, hair tousled, shirt undone, tie loosened, strikes a sultry pose for L’Homme Sport, a new fragrance by Lanvin. It promises to give off a smell of “aristocratic ease.”

Making a pop video with the Colombian singer, smelling good and looking sharp for a French perfumier—this is a whole new look for the newly reinstated world number one.

Gone are the cut-away tops that showed off his bulging biceps and were twinned with pirate trousers and bandanas. Now it is all preppy polo shirts and regular shorts.

For rebranding one of the world’s most popular and recognisable sports stars is a multi-million pound business with everyone from banks to watchmakers, from insurance companies to car manufacturers queuing up for a slice.

“Nadal is following a well-trodden path like actress Angelina Jolie or pop stars like Madonna,” said John Taylor, chairman of public relations and sponsorship agency Sports Impact. “Their personalities lend themselves to promoting brands.”

Nadal, with his clean-cut good looks and image as the hometown boy from the island of Majorca, is the perfect fit.

Bidding to land his second Wimbledon title after missing last year with sore knees and grappling with his parents’ divorce, Nadal has said “I’m happy in Majorca, it’s home. Why would I leave?”

His uncle and coach Tony has always sought to keep his young charge firmly grounded in reality. That image is now paying rich dividends for the 23-year-old Spaniard.

In a bygone era it is difficult to imagine Rod Laver or even Pete Sampras stripping down to the waist for a pop video.

Daily Telegraph sportswriter Mark Hodgkinson, delivering his verdict on the Shakira video, said of Nadal “He shows that he can nuzzle, snuggle and cuddle almost as well as he can hit whippy top spin forehands.”

Nadal certainly ranks as an image-maker’s dream.

“He appeals to both sexes. He is athletic and well-built and has cross-over appeal. That is the key,” said sports marketer Taylor.

“It makes total sense. They are moving away from the wild boy image to the ‘I am a really cool dude and if you buy this after-shave you can be too.’ It is very carefully thought out. This is bound to work.”

oath

“As you enter on the execution of your office, I wish that you make good use of your family’s and our country’s patrimony of intangibles – the common heritage of moral courage and good judgment, which cannot be matched by any amount of affluence and can sustain you in the political road ahead.”

“Your parents, themselves public servants, bequeathed a lasting legacy and left an indelible imprint in the life of the nation. What better tribute to them than a life of selfless service to the Filipino people they so dearly loved,” Associate Justice Conchita Carpio Morales, on accepting President Noynoy Aquino's request to take his oath before her.

Justice Carpio-Morales was the lone dissenter among the SC justices that allowed President Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice, following Reynato Puno's retirement. She also declined to be included in the list of nominees as successor to Puno.

N1

june 10th, i braved the edsa traffic and tons of emails to send to meet my blockmates from UP. ours was a combo of history and anthropology majors. while a lot of us shifted to other colleges, many stayed and some of them are now members of the academe.

that night started with a quick dinner at shakey's, then we transferred to seattle's best for coffee courtesy of kayzee, and we ended up in mcdonald's for some sundae and fries. we called it a night at around 3 am! tons of kuwentos looking back, common experiences, tawanan, sharing of opinions on current events, ranting about work and family life, single blessedness... absolutely no deadair. when i reached my place, around 4 am, i still couldn't sleep. we met again on the 15th, another entry for that.

tatay

maligayang araw ng mga ama, pa!

tahimik, minsan lang siya magsalita ngunit tila batas ang bawat salita at ang tinig niya ay may dagundong ng paggalang, kaya naman matagal din siyang naglingkod bilang punong barangay ng capri. maaga silang bumuo ng pamilya ni mama, ibayong sikap ang ipinamalas niya upang maitaguyod ang anim na anak. bahagi siya ng unang bugso ng mga pinoy OFWs na nangibang-bayan noong dekada '80 at nagtrabaho bilang drayber ng isang pamilya sa riyadh. bumalik noong kalagitnaan ng '80s at nasabak sa pambarangay na pulitika.

dalangin ko na humusay ang kanyang kalusugan at bumalik ang dating sigla. nawa'y muli silang maging aktibo ni tita sa couples for christ at maging abalang muli sa mga bagay na walang kinalaman sa pulitika. mahal ka namin, papa! (",)

nido

after three years, i'm going back to palawan! this wednesday morning, we're flying to puerto princesa via air philippines, then head to el nido. i'm super excited. i just hope that the rains won't come. if it'll really rain, only in the afternoon sana. we were lucky to get 734 round trip ticket and i particularly saved annual leave credits for this trip. (",)

copa

i'm not a huge fan of football. but as i'm always interested in sporting records, countries and their international sporting wins, and i guess the overall patriotic theme of of the world cup, football's getting my attention these days. rafa has just won his 5th french open crown and lost to best bud feliciano lopez in the semis at queen's club, so the first six matches at this year's world cup is what keeps me busy... at least looking at the scores and the highlights.

since this is the biggest sporting extravaganza, outside of the olympics, aydisi peeps have also launched a game, all employees can join of course. since we're in the business of making inferences and predicting the future, we actually predicted the scores of each matches and who will make it to the knockout stages and actually win it all. i went for spain, germany and portugal... i hope that either of these three countries make it. (",) spain has yet to play its opening round; germany thrashed australia, 4-0, in their opening game; while portugal is grouped in what they billed as group of death, with brazil, ivory coast and north korea.

king

rafa wins his fifth french open crown! he didn't lose a set and will take over the number 1 ranking when the new list comes out later today. he's one short of borg's record 6 french open titles. with 3 master shield this year and the roland garros championship, rafa's the undisputed king of clay. more importantly, he has silenced his critics that his slump last year was the start of his slide in the rankings. he's just building up steam for more tennis glory!

as usual, i didn't watch the live proceedings. i stayed in coffee bean to work on some slides, while glancing at the scores from time to time. i did this via yahoo! sports (the source of the pics below), not roland garros live scores. i didn't want to jinx the whole thing. and even if i had some fresh meat, veggies and other groceries that needed to be refrigerated, i opted to sit and wait for the result. i don't think i can wait for 8 am to see if rafa took care of soderling's barrage. and he did. so happy.

franchesca schiavone won the women's singles, williams sisters won women's doubles, while nenad zimonjic won two grand slam titles - one with daniel nestor for men's doubles and with katarina srebotnik for the mixed doubles.

grasscourt season starts immediately and i hope that rafa's momentum is carried thru even after wimbledon. vamos rafa!

tong-greso

minalasado na naman ng kongreso ang kanilang tungkulin sa sambayanan sa moro-morong palabas nitong nakaraang linggo sa plenaryo. huling pulong na lamang ng ika-14 na kongreso ng bansa, kaya't marami ang nag-aabang sa kahihinatnan ng isang batas na magsisilbing unang hakbang upang unti-unting lipulin ang katiwalian sa pamahalaan. labindalawang taon nang nakabinbin ang panukalang ito, ngunit dahil na rin sa mga pansariling interes ng mga kinatawang ito, maghihintay na naman ng ilang buwan, kapag nakapuwesto na ang susunod na kongreso, bago muling mapag-usapan ito.

nakatakdang ratipikahin ng mababang kapulungan ang panukalang batas na freedom of information, na naglalayong bigyang-laya ang sinumang mamamayan na uriratin ang anumang datos o impormasyong hawak ng mga nasa pamahalaan. hindi kinakailangang magsumite ng anumang rason ng sinumang nais na humingi ng kopya ng mga pampublikong dokumento, ngunit ang sangay ng pamahalaan na tatanggi sa pakiusap ay kailangang magpaliwanag sa mamamayan. sa ganitong paraan, mabubuksan sa publiko ang lahat ng mga impormasyon ukol sa kung paano ginagastos ng bawat sangay ang kanilang badyet, anu-anong mga kontrata ang pinapasok ng pamahalaan, sinu-sinong mga kontraktor ang nakikipag-ugnayan sa pamahalaan, at maging lahat ng detalye sa kabuuan ng pamamahala ay magiging hayag sa publiko. isang malaking hakbang ito upang malantad ang kahit maliit na kabalintunaan ng mga nasa posisyon, maging lokal man o sa pambansang mga tanggapan. higit na mauunawaan ng bawat mamamayan kung saan napupunta ang buwis na kanilang ibinabayad at anu-anong mga proyekto ang inaatupag ng mga pulitiko. malilimitahan nito ang mga patagong transaksyon na may bahid ng pandarambong o panlalamang ng mga ganid na pinuno. higit sa lahat, magkakaroon ng higit na kapangyarihan ang mga mamamayan na usisain ang pamahalaan sa mga isyung may direktang epekto sa pang-araw-araw na buhay.

dala raw ng kawalan ng korum, kung kaya't nabaon ng dalawang pukpok ng malyete ni speaker prospero nograles ang batas na magbibigay din ng higit na pagkakataon sa midya at tagausig ng bayan na kumuha ng mga datos na maaari nilang gamitin sa pagbabalita o masusing pagtiktik sa galaw ng mga nasa gobyerno. iginiit ni pedro romualdo na magrolkol, at lumabas sa pagbibilang na wala ngang korum. pinilit pa nina joel villanueva at risa hontiveros - baraquel na pigilan ang pagtatapos sa pulong, ngunit nanaig ang tila malaon nang napraktis na iskrip ng mga maka-gloria sa pagpatay sa panukalang ito, lalo't hindi kailangan ng basbas ng senado upang maipasa ito. pamana na sana ito ni nograles at ng tong-greso sa sambayanan, ngunit di pa rin nangyari. magpahanggang sa huli, nananaig pa rin ang maitim na tinta at mga galamay ng pugitang si gloria.

sa loob ng tatlong linggo, mauupo na si noynoy sa malacañang, mapaloob sana ang batas na ito sa mga unang aatupagin ng kanyang mga kaalyado sa mababang kapulungan. masyado nang matagal ang ipinaghintay ng mga mamamayan na makakita't madama ang higit na pagiging bukas sa publiko ng pamahalaan sa pilipinas. hindi na rin maaari pang magpatuloy ang nakagawian na sa gobyerno na mga pailalim na transaksyon. panahon na upang kitlin ang bulok na pamamahala at bigyang-laya ang mga tao na magtanong at maging higit na sangkot sa pagsasa-ayos ng ating lipunan.

life

THE SCALE OF LIFE INVESTMENT

by Andrei Voznesensky

(translated from Russian original)

First it’s cheap, and then it’s valued high.

Prices grow because of false assessment.

Value can be only measured by

the efficiency of our life investment!

Yogis need no knife to make a hack.

Scholars spend their lives on bomb invention.

Some will crush a hedgehog with the naked back

spending a decade on the projection.



What’s the prison term at mutiny and strife?

What’s the length of torment at creation?

All is measured by the scale of life —

the integral scale of estimation.



Even age it can somehow defer.

Look at the young jade, whom they call «honey» —

hundreds have invested their lives in her

as if she were a box for saving money.



Talent is the constant value scale

given to the care-free and generous

who will quench their thirst, without fail,

with the biggest gold-secured shares.



Man, don’t hide your gift, for goodness sake.

Roads are false, but death will not deceive you.

Put yourself into a single check.

You did not mistake the cash-desk, did you?

vienna

vienna tops this year's best place to live. baghdad was adjudged as the worst place to call home. how about manila? most probably in the bottom. haaayy...


The world's best places to live 2010
By Mark Scott and Andy Reinhardt of Bloomberg Businessweek

It must be that alpine air
It's a question that constantly fascinates people around the planet: Where is the best place to live? Global consultancy Mercer, a unit of Marsh & McLennan, answers this question every year with a detailed study of the quality of life in 420 cities around the world.

The 2010 results are in. Once again Vienna tops the list, followed by Zurich and Geneva. Vienna? Zurich? Lovely, yes, if not the most exciting places on Earth. In all fairness, that's not what Mercer is promising. The firm's research is aimed at companies trying to figure out where to place overseas executives — and how to compensate them for foreign assignment.

The study considers 39 factors that range from political stability and crime rates to housing, health care and education. Of course, lifestyle issues such as cuisine, nightlife, culture and recreation are included, as is the natural environment. These are balanced by factors of perhaps greater interest to expatriates, such as safety and public services. All told, the cities that rise to the top offer the world's highest quality of life across a wide spectrum of measures.

Despite its current economic travails, Europe still dominates the list's higher reaches, with seven of the top 10 cities. Rounding out the top 10 are Vancouver, British Columbia; Auckland, New Zealand; and Sydney. The highest-ranked U.S. city is Honolulu at No. 31, followed by San Francisco at No. 32. For the second consecutive year, Baghdad was chosen as the world's worst place to live. This year, Mercer also conducted a separate "eco-ranking" that assesses cities on factors such as air and water quality, waste disposal, sewage handling, renewable energy usage and traffic congestion.