Pols watching Pacman can bring swine flu to the Philippines

With the upcoming Pacquiao-Hatton fight, expect a lot of congressmen and other top officials to throng to the US to watch the event. I hope the government bans their travel in the light of the swine flu scare. It is best for these politicians to stay at home. They will save a lot of precious dollars and will not have the chance to contract the swine flu virus. Going there gives them the chance to bring back the virus here. We suffer enough from the pork barrel funds misuse, we do not need another pork-related disease.

Popoy's summer workshop

I registered Popoy for the McDonald' Summer Kiddie crew workshop. The Php650 fee covers the following: a cap, shirt, and a meal for the 5-day duration of the workshop. Popoy and his cousin, Dindin, will join the other kids in the worskhop in the McDo branch in Puregold-Agora. The workshop has three main activities per day - values formation lecture, some on-the-job training and art workshop. With a fun mix of learning activities, the kids will be taught how to man the counter, greet and serve guests and bus tables. There will be art activities like puppet-making. These activities are designed to promote positive values like hard work, friendship, team work, self-confidence and cleanliness while having fun.

This McDo program is noteworthy. I see that McDonald's competes with Jollibee not only with its products but on corporate responsibilities as well. This can only mean better service for everybody. Good job, Ronald.

Lechon is best Pig

Sometime in February, Anthony Bourdain featured the Philippines in his show No Reservations. In that episode he ate Cebu lechon and blogged “that of all the whole roasted pigs I've had all over the world, the slow roasted lechon I had on Cebu was the best,” placing it over the Bali and Puerto Rico versions.

Time magazine took the cue from Bourdain and featured the lechon in its April 23 issue. The magazine glowingly salivated: "A pig is roasted for hours over a fire of open coals, slowly rotated on a bamboo spit, lovingly basted and meticulously supervised until its flesh is so tender, moist and succulent that it can be sliced with the edge of a plate, and its skin so crisp it can be punctured with the tap of a finger. You could call it the Platonic ideal of a pig, but it's doubtful if Plato, or even an entire faculty of philosophers, could have imagined anything so exquisite."

Notwithstanding swine flu, this Pinoy food is among the most missed by my batchmates based abroad. I am sure we will have lechon again in our planned reunion. We'll take our chances.

NBA predictions

I am busy this week watching the NBA first round playoffs, among other stuff. With the Suns out of it all, I was rooting for the Celtics to win again but with The Big Ticket sidelined for the playoffs I switched allegiance to the Cavs.

I am still anti-Kobe though I still predict a Lakers-Cavs finale. The Lakers are the heavy favorites in the West. Kobe is playing a much controlled game. Perhaps he is put on a leash by Phil Jackson, to preserve him for the final push where he his pent-up desire to take over the game will be unleashed. Or perhaps, he is not that young anymore. There is a better chance for the West teams to upset their top seed than for the East teams. The Nuggets, barring another post-season bad luck for George Karl, stands the best chance. They are followed by the Mava snd the Rockets. The greatest thing going for the Lakers is that they are all healthy at this time. Tex Winter suffered a stroke but expect Phil Jackson to make that a rallying point.

In the East, the Celtics cannot ride on emotions to make it all the way. I believe emotions can only sustain the charge for only three games max, after which, the body will not respond and the other team's pride and emotion will in turn carry them through. So emotions can carry the Celts, net of Garnett and Powe-less, past the young Bulls but they will be tested to the hilt and further weakened by the second round. The Cavs on the other hand are healthy with the King James not even in his primest.

The expected Lakers-Cavs setto is very evenly matched. The Cavs cannot be trumped in the forward position with King James on their side. The middle decidedly goes to the Lakers with Gasol, Bynum, Odom. The guard position again goes to the Lakers. The coaching, too, shows advantage for the Lakers with Phil's nine rings waiting for the tenth so each finger will have one. So in the Lakers-Cavs finals, the Lakers will be the heavy favorites. But I am still rooting for the Cavs. Because I am anti-Kobe.

Facebook simplifies relationships

My wife is new on Facebook. When she accepted my invite to FB, she immediately became an FB friend. But FB made an entry on my wall that "Perry and Josephine Hugo are now friends". Wtf? She's my wife. Before some flipped up friend thinks otherwise, I clicked on the Info tab->Edit Information->Relationship Status dropdown combobox, and chose married. I typed my wife's name on the box. Hmm, good, it filters my friends' names based on the characters I type. So I passed on Joel, then a Josephine (not her), then to Josephine Hugo. But before it accepts my wife's name, it says "We will notify Josephine Hugo, who will have to confirm that you are in a relationship."

Somehow I find this absurd so I decided to cancel the status update. But FB already has already posted on my wall that my "Perry went from being 'single' to 'married'". I checked that my married status, while still awaiting 'confirmation' from my wife, has stuck despite my cancel of the update. I, then, edited my personal info again. I 'canceled' my relationship with my wife. FB then posted another update on my wall - "Perry went from being 'married' to 'single'.". Hahaha. I just deleted the misleading wall updates.

I have friends who are in complicated relationships. They can benefit from such facility in real life. If FB can do that - change relationship status in a flash - then it is definitely the all-time best application. Imagine the possibilities.