Miscellany

Last night, the volleyball team I am coaching, Grin team, played the last game in their best of three finals against the Stingers, the defending champion. Grin team and Stingers had split the first two games, both of which were played in three sets. The game started at 8pm but I had a meeting that finished at that time so when I got to Meralco for the game, they were already in the 2nd set. My team won the 1st set convincingly, 25-10, so they decided to let the rest of the team play in the second set. They ended up losing that set by about four points though, but at least everyone in the team got to play.

The third set was up and down. The Stingers took initiative first, taking an early lead. But good play and placement allowed Grin team to catch up and take the lead midway through the set. Unfortunately, at 19-16 in favor of my team, the wheels came off. The Stinger's star player found her range and took control of the match by blasting several tough spikes and wallop serves. Grin team lost 9 of the next 10 points to lose the set and the championship. Too bad. At least they had lots of fun and all their players got to play in the final game of the series. Til next year!

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Mig Ayesa made it to the final 3 of Rockstar INXS last week, but no further. How sad. I am proud of his achievement and I am even more pleased that he thanked his supporters from the Philippines and Australia. And as I guessed, INXS picked JD over Marty to be their new frontman. JD's voice and style match better.

While I am on the topic, I have to say that I don't think Marty is really that good or as great as people rave about. When I look back at some of his performances - Live's "I Alone", Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here", and Radiohead's "Creep" - I just think that he doesn't have the vocal versatility nor the appropriate emotional interpretation when performing (he always has this intense, bugged-out-eyes look). "Trees" was his only performance that I saw that I thought was great. But now that I mention it, maybe he doesn't cover other people's songs very well but he does a kick-ass job of performing his own. So maybe he actually is really good as long as he doesn't cover other people's songs.

*****

Michael Owen is starting to make a move in the Premiership once again. He had a lackluster performance in his first outing in Newcastle. But in his second game, he managed to score a goal with a great header and helped Newcastle win 3-0 over Blackburn. Then he scored the loan goal in their game against Man City helping Newcastle claw its way from the bottom of the league to 10th spot. Great job!

On the otherhand, Liverpool have not had as much success. They managed to hold Man Utd to a draw at home which is not the best result, but it was against ManU so I guess a draw ain't so bad. Unfortunately, they also drew against Birmingham away. They are now in unlcuky 13th place, although they do have a game in hand (or 2 even). At least they are so far doing well in Champions League. Hope Liverpool manage to upend Chelsea tonight!