Women's tennis album - November 2011

Pacquiao-Marquez III. A win is a win

A win is a win but this one is disappointing.

I watched the Pacquiao-Marquez III fight at an SM Cinema. I was not feeling very well this weekend but I mustered enough strength to watch what every Filipino will be following too. As if a foreboding of things to come, the first fight in the undercard was boring and the satellite signal was jittery. This is not turning out right, I thought.

White hair chronicles - Smokin' Joe Frazier, RIP

"Joe Frazier is the greatest fighter of all time, next to me", said Muhammad Ali. Coming from the greatest himself, that is the ultimate testament to the greatness of Joe Frazier.

Frazier and the heavyweights of his time hooked me to the sport. As a little school boy during the golden days of boxing, I was awed by the the size and power of the great fighters.

Ali was confident, brash, charismatic and glib. On the other hand, Frazier's silence could be mistaken for humility. In many ways, his smaller size compared to the giants endeared him to the the fans. He was the silent underdog.

I remember his fights with George Foreman. He was the little man but the favorite in those fights. Frazier won almost of his fights by KO, yet when he tangled with George it was as if he fought four men. He got clobbered with seemingly slow but definitely sledgehammer-like blows.

But Joe will always be associated with the Ali trilogy. The last fight being the Thrilla in Manila. Unlike in these days when people have to cough up hundreds of pesos to see the fights live on Sundays or else endure tons of commercials; fights in Frazier's time were shown live on free TV. And with no commercials, at all.

My father was going to watch the Thrilla live in Araneta. He had bleacher tickets that still cost a princely sum back then. The fight was held on a school day. I was in a government run school and we were still under martial law. Many students were also anxious about the fight, and to our surprise the usually uptight school authorities allowed us to watch the fight. They even provided a small TV.


It was great back and forth fight, richly deserving to be dubbed the fight of the century. Great result for boxing. But bad result for Joe Frazier. RIP, Smokin' Joe.

PacMan scores KO!

 click for image source: 

The PacMan once again scores a KO (or in Tagalog nakascore kay KO). The latest 'victim' is a 22-year old culinary arts student Kat Ordonez (her initials are KO, see?).

News reports say that the PacMan attended the baptism, actually he was the godfather, of KO's son. Gossip flew that PacMan was really the child's father. Immediately, denials were quicker in coming than Pac's 1-2 combos.

I'm sure Pac has stood as ninong to countless children. But why is the paternity of this one being attributed to him? And why does the issue refuse to die despite the denials of all concerned?

It could be one or any combination of the following:

1. Filipinos are by nature gossips.
2. The PacMan has done it before. In 2003, he admitted having a one-night stand that led to a love child, and a legal battle.
3. The more they deny, the more are revealed. They denied the Krista affair, but now Jinkee said "I trust him, because he promised he will not get involved with anyone anymore after Krista [Ranillo]." So, there was really a Krista affair!
4. Jinkee offered a Hermes bag as reward for proof that there's another woman. She seemed so cocky sure no one can prove anything. But now with preponderance of circumstantial evidence, she says she was joking.
5. Jinkee reacts by saying "Suwerte ko I'm the original, not the other woman.". So there is another woman!
6. The baptism (and the reception) was a hush-hush affair, even to Jinkee, who was not made ninang.
7. The boy is named King. PacMan has daughters named Princess and Queenie.
8. The other ninongs are PacMan's close friends, Lito and Phillip.
9. Filipinos are quick to notice Pac's resemblance to the children (I can't tell, though).
10. This is all just a ploy to distract Pac in his preparations for the Marquez fight.
11. Add your reason here.

Women's tennis album - October 2011

White hair chronicles - Dennis M. Ritchie, RIP

Dennis M. Ritchie passed away just a week after Steve Jobs died. In a week's span, the world lost two giants of the computing world. But Ritchie's death almost came unnoticed. Maybe the world was still mourning for Steve. But most likely, the world hasn't heard of Dennis M. Ritchie. Who is he anyway? To the non-techie, the low-profile Ritchie is the creator (along with Ken Thomson) of Unix and the C programming language (with Brian W. Kernighan). Unix, of course, is the precursor of Linux and MacOS (there's the connection to Steve); while C is the language which is perhaps the most widely used programming language.

I tried to learn C back in the old days, when the world has not yet heard of Linux. I had the C Programming book which was cheap, thin and printed on newsprint unlike today's expensive, thick, glossy computer books. It was simple, but elegant. I also had the similarly printed C-Answer book.

I originally thought that Kernighan was the father of C, since he got top billing in the book (K&R C). Through wikipedia, we later learn that Kernighan actually attributes the design of C entirely to Ritchie.

No doubt Dennis Ritchie was low-profile, as indicated in the billing of their book. Despite his legendary contributions, few knew about him. I read somewhere that if Gates or Jobs are the Buzz Aldrins of IT, then Dennis Ritchie is a Michael Collins. His role was equally important even if he stayed away from the limelight. Now, the young ones will ask who the heck are Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin? But that's another story.

Goodbye, Steve. RIP

"Death is very likely the best invention of life. All pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important." - Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Goodbye, Steve. RIP.

The Ten Most Hated Jobs

A recent article at CNBC draws on a survey of hundreds of thousands of employees which determined the 10 most hated jobs. Despite the hard job put in by teachers and nurses, it may be surprising that they didn’t make the list. The jobs in the list are not the low level jobs. The survey found that limited growth opportunities and lack of reward caused more dissatisfaction than the low pay, long hours, and thankless tasks.

The pain then, is psychological. It’s the lack of direction and meaning in what they do that is the problem. People know that they are capable of contributing more but the hierarchical bureaucracy prevents them from doing it.

The Ten Most Hated Jobs:

1. Director of Information Technology 
2. Director of Sales and Marketing 
3. Product Manager 
4. Senior Web Developer 
5. Technical Specialist 
6. Electronics Technician 
7. Law Clerk 
8. Technical Support Analyst 
9. CNC (computer numerical control machines, e.g., lathes) Machinist 
10. Marketing Manager

I know a friend who though not from an IT department, performs IT tasks for his group. He can claim to perform four (maybe more) of the jobs listed above. He must hate his job, I thought. When asked about it, he said the respect of his peers and co-workers keep him going. The top heavy bureaucracy bears down on the staff and only the deep camaraderie and the common desire to contribute make the employees function. Wow, their director of IT must be hating his/her job more, I assumed. On the contrary, my friend says the managers love their jobs as much as the staff hate them. The clueless supervisors/managers can go on leave full time and it won't make a difference. My friend hopes they give it a try.

Floyd may not weather Manny

For all his posturings about him being the greatest, Floyd Mayweather, Jr.'s refusal to commit to fight Manny Pacquiao betrays his insecurities about losing that 0 loss record. While the whole boxing world wants to witness the fight, Floyd himself wants none of it. In news item from Reuters.com, Floyd said he doesn't need Pacquiao.

Despite his masterful but controversial conquest of Victor Ortiz, Floyd talked about his dominance in the past tense. "I don't need him. Where was Pacquiao in 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 when I was dominating the game? He never asked me (for a fight) when I was in my twenties or when I was in my teens." For the information of Floyd, who is now 34, in 1996 Manny fought at 113 pounds or 18 below Floyd's fighting weight then.

Floyd added that "a fighter just don't get to 25 years old and all of a sudden he becomes great," referring to Pacquaio. Maybe he just heard of Pacquiao when Pacquiao was 25 in 2004. At that point, Pac still fought at 126 and Floyd at 135. Pacquiao's star was on the rise having begun the streak against Mexicans that earned him the Mexicutioner tag. But Pacquiao's ascent to stardom actually began 2 1/2 years before when he wrested the crown from Ledwahba.

Maybe Ortiz before the headbutt made Floyd realize what pressure Pac can bring to him. Maybe Floyd suddenly felt he can be hit now. That's why he is keeping his distance. Shrewd kid.

Mayweather-Ortiz shows Floyd true side - good, crude, and rude

I spent P501 yesterday to watch the satellite feed of the Ortiz-Mayweather tiff at the Gateway Cinema. It was money well spent. The undercard was superb. I finally got the chance to see young Mexican legend in the making, Saul Canelo Alvarez, fight. His handlers seem to take good care of his young career, careful not to feed him to the old lions just yet. At this point, he still doesn't have what it takes to get past the likes of Cotto and the other veteran super welterweights.

I also got to see Erik Morales fight again. At this stage of his resurrected career, watching him fight is like watching an old Erik Morales fight in slow motion. His body, though not flabby, doesn't have the abs present in most other 140 pounder. His is the body of an old man. He won convincingly against a late substitute but not after being threatened in the early rounds. I'm glad he won the race to be the first Mexican to win titles in 4 weight divisions. He does not have the same arrogance exhibited by Barrera and Marquez.

Now the Mayweather-Ortiz fight started out as the mismatch indicated by the 5-1 fight odds. No matter how hard Ortiz tried, he cannot get inside the crafty defense of Floyd Jr while getting repeatedly pummeled with hard rights. In the 4th, he managed to get Floyd on the ropes but he was still not connecting cleanly. In a fit of disgust, maybe, he intentionally head butted Floyd, promptly earning him a point deduction. Then the bizarre happened. He apologized-kissed Floyd-touched gloves-tried to kiss Floyd again-while the referee glanced towards the timekeeper-and-BOOM-BOOM-Floyd connects with a 1-2 left right combo that floors him.The left photo shows a clueless Joe Cortez.

It was not an illegal punch. The headbutt was illegal. But the ending soured further Floyd's image. It was sucker punch, but worse than the one Floyd did to Mosley. And of course Ortiz, with a guaranteed  US$2.5 million, won't protest the outcome. It was inevitable anyway. The bizarre events just made ended it sooner.

The fight should be an eye opener for the PacMan-Roach tandem. They should prepare for Floyd's fast right straights. They should plan ways to penetrate the shifty shoulder rolls. And most importantly Pac should learn to always put his hands up to prevent those sucker punches. In the Mosley fight, PacMan acceded to all the Mosley touch glove gestures. Against Floyd, he should touch gloves with arms straight out in front.

I stayed on to watch the post-fight interview. Floyd went into an expletive laden rant against veteran broadcaster Larry Merchant. He initially rambled on about thanking God, blah-blah, but Merchant cut him off to ask why despite being in control of the fight he had to resort to that unfair 1-2 combo. Then Floyd shockingly began his tirade. Perhaps it was his way to avoid the tough questions about the Pac fight.

This just shows the true side of Floyd. He is a good fighter, probably the best of this era. In the eventual Pac fight, Floyd will be the odds-on favorite. But this also shows the true nature of Floyd. In the run up to this fight, his supporters attribute his aberrant behavior to his marketing savvy. They say his bad boy image sells tickets. Maybe. But what about his cheap shots? He sucker punched Mosley too. When asked about his behavior and his unexciting fights and his avoidance of a Pac fight, he throws off in a rant. He is not selling fights in those post fight interviews. He just shows who he really is.

Now compare that to Pacquiao. Pac touches gloves when asked. He even picks up opponents he just floored. At times he refuses to knock out a completely helpless foe but still manages to give an entertaining fight. When asked about a possible Mayweather bout, he replies gracefully about it being a promoter's job and fighting who is lined up for him.

Compared to our Pacman, Floyd the fighter is good, but as sportsman, he is crude and as a human being, he is rude.