American Idol on WII

Have you ever played "American Idol" on WII? I did, a couple of weeks ago. Hannah, who is now based in Costa Rica, and Mike, based in the US, were both here recently so we decided to have a mini-reunion. We had dinner at Raffa and Joh's house. They prepared barbecue and pansit and provided drinks, I brought dessert, and Pia and Hannah ordered Pritchon. After a heavy dinner (and watching the American Idol elimination night during "Idol Gives Back" week), we headed to Joh and Raffa's entertainment room where we played American Idol.

The American Idol WII game is basically like videoke, but instead of seeing only the lyrics, you can also see the pitch of each note. The highest score possible for a full song is 100,000. And if you select the American Idol style game where you have auditions, semifinals and weekly eliminations, after each performance, the judges give you very accurate critiques! And with the voices of Randy, Paula, and Simon. It's uncanny really.

It was a really fun night! We were supposed to play 4-5 rounds I think. I did well with "How to save a life" by the Fray during the auditions (all of us except Mike passed LOL). Then I decided to sing Phil Collins' "In the air tonight" thinking I knew the song but apparently I didn't know the phrasing of the verses so I got a dismal score LOL. Hannah started teasing me saying I would get eliminated because of my low score, but for some reason she chooses to sing the Guns N' Roses version of "Knockin' on heaven's door" and does even worse on that song than I did on mine so she gets the lowest score LOL.

Then for some reason we ended up resetting the game so we started a shorter version. This time I sang Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" and I couldn't get the phrasing of the verse again and got another bad score. It was interesting though that in both songs that I bungled up, the judges commented that I started shaky and ended strong - which was pretty darn accurate coz I knew the chorus of both songs but not the verses. Their comments were pretty accurate as well for the other folks.

Other memorable moments:

• Bohemian Rhapsody - Hannah first tried it out, then Raffa and I did it as a duet, and we didn't score well on either occasion LOL. I'm still trying to figure out which voice is being used during the bridge (or well you know that part that goes "I see a silhouetto of a man, Scaramouch...") coz we kept getting scored poorly while singing that part.
• Joh getting a perfect score! Apparently, "My heart will go on" is the easiest song to get a high or even perfect score with, as everyone who tried singing that song did extremely well with it. That also wasn't Joh's first time to score a clean 100 thousand on it. Way to go Joh!
• I scored 97,000+ on "Irreplaceable"! The phrasing of this song is tricky, but I've listened to it so many times already that I know how the verses are sung. So I ended up getting my highest score of the night on that song. I also got 96,000+ from Fuel's "Hemorrhage" although my score would have been higher if I didn't end up singing Chris Daughtry's version - he sings at a higher key in the end - and so I missed the pitch completely for a few seconds LOL. I also got 90,000+ on "I don't wanna miss a thing" and it could also have been higher if my throat wasn't tired and dry by then coz I couldn't sing some of the really high notes in the end anymore LOL.
• There's a battle game option in American Idol where two people sing the same song at the same time. Whoever gets a higher score wins. This was so funny, especially when Pia and Hannah had their show-downs.

All in all it was a great night, and when we left, apparently Joh and Raffa kept on singing LOL. Too bad that both Mike and Hannah aren't here in Manila anymore. It would certainly be great if we could have played that game again. :)

Britain's got talent: Charlie Green

A friend of mine sent me a link. This kid is 10 years old and yet he has the confidence, stage presence, and the vocal control of a seasoned pro.


video uploaded in youtube by BritainsGotTalent08

The way he tackled the really high parts of the song, where he transitions flawlessly from his chest tone to a head tone then back to a chest tone, is impossibly good especially when you consider his age. A lot of singers who have been performing for years can't do these vocal transitions half as well as Charlie can. And his scatting was extremely confident.

(I wonder if his mom is Filipino...)

A Saturday with Habitat for Humanity

I recently joined the socio-civic organization we have at work and the first event I got to participate in was a Habitat for Humanity activity, held a couple of Saturdays ago. I had never been able to join a Habitat for Humanity activity before, although I've had a couple of opportunities to do so in the past, so I readily made myself available in this activity and even helped out in the planning.
The activity was going to be held in the SNKI (or Samahang Nagkakaisa sa Kamarin, Inc.) site in Kamarin and we were supposed to be there by 730am. which is terribly early for me. In any case, I managed to get to the assembly point by 630am and was actually one of the first few people there. Lots of people were late and some even backed out at the last minute, so we ended up getting to the site at 845am which was a lot later than expected.

Despite that, the rest of the day went very well. Engineer Noel Zeta who was leading the work in the site shared a brief history of Habitat for Humanity with the participants before discussing the SNKI Phase 2 project – which is comprised of 109 houses and is expected to be complete by July 2008. He then explained what we would be doing to help out. Engr. Zeta said that most of the actual house-building would be done by the skilled workers to make sure that the houses were being built with a certain standard and quality (I mean, you can't really expect corporate folks who have no experience in construction to be able to build houses, can you?) so our goal would be to ensure that the workers would be able to do their jobs well.

This essentially included moving hollow blocks from the large stockpile in the middle of the SNKI site to the center of each of the houses being built. By doing this, the workers could easily reach for the hollow blocks and build the walls. We had to move about 60 hollow blocks for about 8 houses which meant we moved approximately 500 hollow blocks that day. Of course, if you had to pick one up and walk several meters to bring it to where it was needed, it would take a really long time to 20 people to move 60 blocks (you may not think it's that difficult but try carrying an actual hollow block and you'll realize just how heavy it is). So instead of doing that, we decided to create a "human conveyor belt" from the stockpile to each of the target houses. This was still quite tiring, and we sometimes had to take breaks in the middle of the hollow block transfer to rest.


Shortly before lunch, a truck filled with sand actually came and dumped its load in the site. The sand would be mixed with cement, and this cement mix would be used for piling the hollow blocks one on top of the other to build the houses. Now the mixer was somewhere between the load of sand and the actual houses so we had to shovel sand into sacks and transfer the sacks to the mixer.
Finally, once the cement mix had been put together, we had to transfer the cement mix to where the houses so the workers could have the mix right in front of them when they start building the walls.

The activity was done at 5pm, and everyone was exhausted (but, well, not completely wiped out, coz we still had to drive home hehehe) but it was great to see that two of the "houses" which started out as ankle high walls at the start of the day were shoulder height when we were done. Before we left, Engineer Zeta introduced Nanay Ludy Magtalas, a board member of SNKI, who thanked us on behalf of the people whose houses they helped build. Pastor Caridad Sanchez then led the us in a thanksgiving prayer.

I got home a little past 8pm, which was actually supposed to be Earth hour where everyone who wanted to participate would turn everything off from 8 to 9pm. I was really dirty by that time, so I ended up being only, er, partially compliant to Earth Hour. Everything in my house was turned off - lights, aircon, TV - except the lights in the bathroom. I took a shower and waited 'til 9pm before turning on any other light or electrical appliance at home. Needless to say, I fell asleep shortly after that. :)

It was a very tiring day, but it was incredibly amazing. Habitat for Humanity never runs out of projects and are always looking for volunteers so if you are interest to help build a house (and burn a whole lot of calories in the process LOL), you may want to visit their website which contains their contact information as well as information on their program and history.

On to the Champions League semifinals!

Liverpool slotted four goals past Arsenal while conceding two goals in Anfield last night. This means that Liverpool make to the final four of the UEFA Champions League! What's even better is that in their last three matches against each other in the course of a week, Liverpool didn't lose. They drew their first two matches (both 1-1), both of which were played on Arsenal's home court, the Emirates Stadium, before Liverpool took advantage of their home game and sent Arsenal packing. Way to go, Liverpool!

They next meet Chelsea, a team they have had trouble beating in the English Premiere League, which is quite interesting because they have had pretty good success when playing against Chelsea in Europe. Hopefully they are able to get past Chelsea again. Would be great to have Liverpool play in their third Champions League final in four years (and gun for their 2nd Champions League title this century). Good luck, Liverpool!

An amazing Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was spent with my mom and nephews. My nephews had wanted go swimming for a while already and so on Black Saturday, we decided to go swimming.

Later that evening, we went to see the animated movie, “Horton hears a Who!”. CJ actually saw a billboard that said that “Horton…” was showing on March 22 and he knew it was May 22 that day so he asked if we could watch it that night. So we did.

The next day, we joined two Easter activities, both in Rockwell. Rockwell Club had an Easter in Candyland activity in the morning. They had lots of candy, some games for the kids, a bit of magic, and an Easter egg hunt. CJ and Ciera were at the front of the line initially when CJ needed to use the bathroom so that left them at the end of the line, which initially bummed me out. Then I realized it was a bit of a blessing in disguise because they both ended up in the last set of kids, and instead of having about 6 or 7 kids in the room at the same time, their group had only 4 kids. So that allowed them to find more eggs (which meant more candy). The coolest thing was that in their group, Ciera actually found the most Easter eggs and CJ got the second most eggs. Ciera actually got a special prize. It was just a candy cane, but he said that it was his trophy and that he wanted to keep it. (I think he changed his mind later that day LOL).

In the afternoon, we headed to The Tent in Powerplant where there was an Easter Circus. I was initially not too pleased with this one, mainly coz there were just waaaay too many people!! My mom fell in line in the face painting but it was a very long line. While waiting for our turn, things started to get better. They started having these live performances – clowns, fire-eaters, acrobats, and magic – that kept my nephews engaged. (The fire eaters were actually asked to cut short their show because balloons started popping due to the heat from the fire and security felt that it was a danger to the people there.) By the time we got to the magic show, it was my nephews’ turn at the face painting booth (they actually both just had a beetle painted on their arms). Before we left, my nephews joined one of the final Easter egg hunts for the day. CJ found only one and Ciera found two, but it didn’t really matter anymore because they did have a more successful Easter egg hunting stint earlier that day.

Since I mentioned watching Horton, I thought I’d talk about it in this blog post as well. I enjoy all types of animated films, but the ones I truly enjoy are those that get me emotionally involved, and generally, only the Pixar movies do that for me. So I was pleasantly surprised when I watched “Horton”. I knew I would enjoy it, but I didn’t know I would enjoy it as much as I did.

SPOILER ALERT! (Stop reading here if you don’t want to know more about the movie.) What I loved about the movie was the main theme which was basically about believing in something, even if nobody else, and fighting like hell for those beliefs. No one believed Horton when he said that there was a town on that speck on the clover and he had to go through extreme odds to make sure the speck was safe. And no one believed the mayor of Whoville when he said that their town was built on a tiny speck and he faced ridicule from the entire town. And when the film gets to (what I felt was) its powerful climax, when the creatures in Horton’s jungle all try to destroy the clover and the entire town shouts “We are here! We are here!” as loud as they can to be heard, I was genuinely moved. I actually want to watch it again, and I can’t wait to get it on DVD.

So anyways, it was a very fun-filled, albeit exhausting, weekend with my family.

Three matches in one week

Liverpool never seem to do that well in the English Premiere League ever since they challenged for the title but ended #2 way back in the 2001-2002 season. They still manage to be in the top four for the most part, but they are normally several points behind the champion.

They seem to do much better in Europe, however, getting to the Quarterfinals of the Champions League in three of the last four seasons (including this one). They won in 2005, lost in the final last year against AC Milan (the team they beat in 2005), and have once again gotten to the top 8 this year.

Their opponents in this round are Arsenal, who started the season incredibly strong before Man Utd caught up and took over the lead in the premiership.

The interesting thing here is that Liverpool and Arsenal will actually play three times in the span of a week. They met last Wednesday in the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal. They play their 2nd match in a week tomorrow (still in the Emirates stadium), this time for the EPL. Finally, on April 8, they play the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal, this time in Anfield.

It's been good so far - Liverpool managed to score a crucial away goal against Arsenal last Wednesday, giving them a draw. They have home court advantage this coming Tuesday, but there can be no resting on laurels since Arsenal are a very formidable team and are definitely capable of an away win.

Hopefully Liverpool can match their efforts from 3 years ago when they won. Hopefully they also remain at 4th place in the Premiership to ensure that they qualify for the Champions League again next year.

Blood on the Tennis Court

You have to check this out (video quality gets much better after 10 seconds). It happened during a tennis match between Mikhail Youzhny from Russia and Nicolas Almagro from Spain. It's absolutely crazy! LOL


video uploaded in youtube by user barney1573

Oh and if you want to know how it all turned out, Mikhail actually ended up winning the match 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. :)

Sixty-six

Last March 10, two of the greatest tennis players of all time - Roger Federer and Pete Sampras - squared off in a best-of-three exhibition in Madison Square Garden. There have been lots of discussion as to who the greatest tennis player of all time is, and having both Roger and Pete battle it out on a tennis court drew massive interest from people, whether rabid tennis fans or not.

The exhibition went the distance and the winner had to be determined by a third set tie-break that went 8-6 in favor of the current #1. Obviously, there would be no answer to the best-of-all-time question because Pete was 10 years older than Roger, and frankly there are other players who are worthy of being called the greatest (such as the legendary Rod Laver). But the exhibition was a huge success, and with 26 Grand Slam titles between the two of them (Pete has 14, Roger currently has 12 but you can expect him to win more), you won't find any other tennis exhibition that could boast of as many Grand Slam titles.

That is, unless you go over to women's tennis and stage a Dream Match between Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova. Which is exactly what happened in Tokyo on March 15, just 5 days later. Steffi and Martina teamed up with ex-Japanese #1 Kimiko Date to play their own "Dream Match" tennis exhibition on the other side of the world.

This exhibition was a lot more low-profile than Federer-Sampras, and I'm still surprised that there wasn't a lot of information shared about in the media, at least until the event was actually completed. Kimiko actually found her groove and beat both Steffi and Martina in their respective matches, but what most of the world must've been waiting for was the Steffi-Martina match.

These two ladies are arguably the best female tennis players ever (right up there with Chris Evert and Margaret Court, among others), and in fact are dead-even in their career head-to-head matches at 9-all. So it made perfect sense that their exhibition would follow in the footsteps of the Pete-Roger one. They played only one set, a Championship set which means that the first player to win 8 games wins. If they got to 7-all, they would play a tie-break that would be first to ten points. And amazingly enough, it did go to a tie-break, with Graf beating Navratilova by winning the final point with her trademark bazooka forehand that she hit for a winner.

Between these two ladies, you have 40 Grand Slam singles titles (Steffi has 22, Martina has 18). That's not even counting doubles titles (Martina, the most successful doubles player in history, has 31 doubles titles and 10 mixed doubles titles). So in that span of 5 days, four of the best tennis players - with sixty six Grand Slam singles titles combined - entertained the world with world-class tennis. If only the tennis gods can put all four of them together in a single event where they can all play tennis together...

A double dose of Elliott Yamin

Last Thursday, I was getting ready to go the gym when my friend Emmy texts me "Turn on your TV. Elliott on Rachel Ray". Now I remember reading about Elliott Yamin's appearance on Rachel Ray a few months ago from the e-train but I never got to see the show. My TV was on so I just flipped the channel to the Lifestyle network. I caught Rachel Ray talking about on of her viewers - a 12-year-old girl who had diabetes. Rachel Ray invited this young girl to her show and asked her to come up on stage. A video was then shown of her and when the video ended, Rachel asked her who was standing right behind her? Lo and behold, it was Elliott! The girl (sorry, I forgot her name) was quite surprised by it and all she could initially say was "I'm a big fan."

After the break, Rachel talks with Elliott, and the discussion revolves mainly around the struggles that people with diabetes have to go through. This was clearly a few months back because Elliott said during the show that his album was almost gold, and all Elliott fans know now that his album has already reached Gold status (congrats, Elliott! :)) After the brief interview, Elliott performed his mega-hit "Wait for you". Rachel then proceeds with the rest of her cooking show, working on a recipe that is diabetic-friendly.

Shortly after that show, I caught American Idol in Starworld (the treadmills in the gym have TVs so I managed to catch it even while I was in the gym). Earlier that morning, another friend of mine, Meg, told me that AI would have an excerpt of Elliott visiting Angola for the Idol gives back program. I was expecting a video that showed a bit of Elliott but instead I was greeted with a really good feature that included him. And not only that. What was even better for me was that the video not only featured him but it also included my favorite female Idol of all time - Fantasia! It was so great seeing both of them in Angola together. Seeing that video actually made my day. They seemed to get along really well too, and I'm actually hoping that when during the Idol Gives Back show in the middle of this season, they invite both Elliott and Fantasia to sing together. Oh man that is going to be a blast!

It is still my dream to see and hear Fantasia perform live. And if I got to see Elliott perform in Manila (four times, at that), then I know that some dreams do come true, no matter how far-fetched they may seem. :)

Damien Rice - 9 crimes

I first heard the song 9 Crimes by Damien Rice a couple of months ago while channel-surfing. As I passed through Starworld, "Live at Abbey Road" was on and the music being played instantly caught my attention. It was so powerful and haunting that I stopped flipping through channels and decided to listen to the rest of the song. I loved it so much that I just had to hear it again. So the next day, I searched for it in youtube (don't you just love youtube?) and found it.

Here's that snippet from Live at Abbey Road:


video uploaded in youtube by user annnaklara

In my search, I also ran across the video of this song. I initially found it morbidly interesting, and I later discovered that the video was inspired by a French movie from 1956 by Albert Lamorisse called "Le Ballon Rouge" or "The Red Balloon". The film is about boy who comes across a red balloon and discovers that the balloon seems to have a mind of its own. You can read more about it in this link.

Anyways, here's the video of 9 crimes:


video uploaded in youtube by noemigadu

Whew!

I saved a lot of my earlier digital photos - circa 2001-2003 - in a desktop that we have in my family's home. Anyways, my brother had been meaning to have it looked at and wanted me to back up the stuff I had in there. The only files I had there though were my photos so I started transferring them to my laptop.

When I started sorting my photos, however, I couldn't seem to find the photos I took during a trip to Paris that I took in Feb 2003. I was aghast! I took a lot of pics during that trip, and it pained me that I may actually have lost those digital photos forever. I consoled myself with the fact that I at least printed some of the pics from that trip (I had been meaning to put them in a photo album for the longest time but I haven't gotten around to it, but that's a different story).

Then I realized - I printed them out! Now, obsessive-compulsive that I am, whenever I want to have photos printed out, I copy those photos into a CD which I then bring to Fujifilm where I normally have digital photos developed. So that means I may have actually copied at least some of my Paris photos onto a CD that I stashed somewhere (yeah, not only am I an obsessive-compulsive, I'm also a pack-rat).

So last weekend I started digging up all my old CDs. And by sheer luck, I actually found one that had my Paris photos! Wahoo!!

What was even better is that this CD that I dug up actually contained ALL my Paris photos (and not just the ones I had printed out). Apparently, I didn't save those photos in the desktop we have at home, but I did save them in the laptop I used in my previous job. I transferred those pictures to a CD when I got a replacement work laptop in 2004, and that's why I didn't initially find that CD with the rest of the CDs where I saved files from my laptop before I resigned in 2006. Confusing? :)

Anyways, finding those photos actually made my day. Now I am planning to sort all my photos during the long weekend. I haven't even gotten around to blogging about my trip to Austria so hopefully after next week, I can do it already.

Tracy Chapman - Talkin' about a Revolution

After posting that video of Hallelujah, I just realized that there is so much great music out there in the world (a lot of which I still haven't heard). So I figured, it might be good for me to use this blog to share some of the music that I really love.

So here's a video of Tracy Chapman singing "Talkin' about a Revolution"

video uploaded in youtube by daressalaam2006

A truly beautiful song performed by a truly magnificent artist!

Meet the Spartans: what a rip-off!

It's not so much the fact that it's stupid humor. You knew that coming into the show. It's not so much a fact that it's simply spoofing pop culture. You knew that coming into the show as well.

The main problem here is that the entire movie, including credits, lasts barely longer than an hour! Maybe 1:15. So you pay P150 expecting to at least go through stupid slapstick jokes for an hour and a half and you don't even get that. What a waste of dough.

It does have it's funny moments, but if I were you, I'd just wait for them to show this movie on HBO or something. Definitely not worth the ticket price. Ugh.

Jeff Buckley's "Hallelujah"

Last week, Jason Castro performed the song "Hallelujah", which was originally done by Leonard Cohen. I got to hear it online early Wednesday, even before I got to watch the show on Starworld later that night, so I didn't hear the judges comments about it. The song sounded very familiar though (I later on figured out that I had heard the John Cale version in "Shrek") so I searched in youtube and in my search I ran into the Jeff Buckley version.

Now the only song of Jeff I knew prior to that day was "The Last Goodbye" which is an amazing song. And I knew from that song that he was an absolutely incredible vocal artist with an unparalleled mix of intensity, expression, texture, dynamics, and control. So I immediately listened to his version and I was immediately blown away! Have a listen and see/hear for yourself.



video uploaded in youtube by EmersonBlues.

You know how some people only sound good when they belt and some people only sound good when they are singing softer notes? Well, Jeff sounds amazing doing both. And dig this - he holds a note for twenty-four seconds at 6:09. You can't do that unless you have perfect vocal control and excellent breath control. And the guitar work on it, which I believe Buckley does as well, perfectly captures the emotion being conveyed by the lyrics.

After discovering this song, I kept playing it over and over and over again. I then started doing more research on Jeff Buckley to figure out which album or albums of his I want to get. This guy is truly magnificent and it's too bad he passed away before he could create more music and share it to the rest of the world.

Man on wheels

So guess what I did over the weekend? I went rollerblading! Or at least attempted to do so LOL.

Yesterday, my mom suggested that we bring my nephews to UP - they close the academic oval to traffic on Sundays and it becomes a huge park where you have dozens upon dozens of people running, biking, strolling, and even playing badminton. My mom felt that it would be good for us to bring my nephews outdoors and away from the weekend mall scene which is where we usually take them.

Now, when I was a kid, my dad taught me how to roller skate. He had these kid skates which I used and what I did as a kid was just put them on and walk around the garage in them. At some point, I managed to be able to move in them. I'm not sure how old I was when I last put on those roller skates, but it was definitely before I started high school. After that, my only other foray into skating was ice skating in SM Megamall a couple of times when I was in college. I was never good at it, but I enjoyed skating a lot. I also had fairly good balance and rarely fell on my butt. :)

Now way back in 2001, I was assigned in Japan for about half a year to work on a project there. I thought that it would be cool if I brought roller blades with me so I could head down to the park and roller blade there. So I bought these really cool looking roller blades that cost me a few thousand bucks actually. I had never tried roller blading before but I felt that if I could roller skate and ice skate, then I could surely rollerblade.

When I got to Japan, I got so immersed in work - it's the busiest I have ever been for that long a period of time - that during the weekends I ended up just resting. This meant only one thing - in the 5 1/2 months that I was there, I got to use my rollerblades only ONCE! LOL what a waste in investment. I had a lot of fun that one time I got to rollerblade so it sucked that I didn't get to use it more.

My rollerblades just sat in my room for the last seven years. I had been meaning to use them but I never got around to it - usually when I went to UP during the weekends, it was for running. So when the opportunity presented itself last Sunday, I decided to shake the dust off my rollerblades and give it another go.

As expected, I had a lot of trouble finding my balance when I had put them on. But after some time, I started getting better and began moving faster. It also took a while before I gained confidence in skating downslope - the UP acad oval wasn't exactly flat. I rollerbladed (really slowly LOL) for about 45 minutes before we decided to leave. It was a lot of fun, and my nephews did enjoy going to UP so we may just do it a bit more often.

Quick hits

Whoa! More than a month since my last update. That is so not good LOL. Here's a quick rundown of a few things that have kept me busy in the last month...

Attended my first beach wedding in Boracay

Tisha and Donald got married in Boracay on Feb 1. The last time I went to Boracay was in 2005 so I was looking forward to it. Especially since I had never been to a beach wedding before. Feb 1 was a Friday so I took the day off and spent the weekend in Boracay. The ceremony was held in the Parish of the Holy Rosary and the reception in Seawind. It was really cool! To add the experience, all the guests received a package when we got to our respective resorts. The package contained, among other things, recommendations on restos to try out and things to do. Coming up with a suggested itinerary was meant to encourage the guest to try out the same things. That way, when we think back to the wedding, we all remember the same things. Pretty smart idea, actually. So from the fact that we were in Boracay to the food tripping to the poker games to the beach volleyball to hanging out with really great friends, this wedding will truly be one very memorable one!

Valentine's Day Harana

The band org we have at work decided to organize some kind of Valentine's Day Harana thing - for a nominal fee, employees can request us to serenade anyone they wanted us to sing to. It was decided very last minute and only approved on the evening of Feb 12, which meant the email announcement would be sent only on Feb 13, a day before Valentine's day. We decided to make the activity last two days. That way, people more time to figure out if they wanted to avail of the service or not. It was so last minute that I was worried that not enough people would avail of it, but as it turned out, I grossly underestimated. In our building at least, there were a total of 18 requests sent in over two days. Now, that may not seem like a lot. But consider this - just because we had this event going on didn't mean we were exempted from work. Also, we had only two vocalists (myself and KC) and one guitarist (RJ) in our building (in our other office building, they got 8 song requests for only 1 day, and they had 2 guitarists and 3 vocalists). To top if off, most of the songs we would do, KC didn't know. So I ended up having to sing most of the songs (I sang solo in about 10 of the songs, and KC and I sang together in 4 of them).

I ended up having to work really long hours on those two days to make sure that my real work would not suffer from this activity. But it was worth it. Not only was it fun to sing for people but I also got to learn and perform a lot of really cool songs that I had never performed for anyone before such as "Fly me to the moon", "You and me" by Lifehouse, "Danny's song" by Kenny Loggins, and Kenny Lattimore's "For you". Considering that we didn't have a lot of time to prepare, I think we pulled it off quite well.

Still Oz reunion!

Well, kinda. Our bassist Sep just started a new job last November, but his scheduled is so whacked out - it changes from week to week - that we can't really gig just yet because we don't know when he's available. Anyways, our rhythm guitarist Bunky managed to get us a pro bono gig in Mayric's (where the great bands are born!) on Tuesday night last week, and Sep said he was free so we figured we might as well give it a go, even if we wouldn't get paid for it. Of course when we arrived, we confirmed what we felt before getting there - that our musical style wasn't exactly suited for the venue. I mean, the bands there play much heavier rock (as well as their original songs!) and here we are covering Dave Matthews Band. We were given half an hour to perform and we initially planned 5-6 songs but before we started we decided to trim it down to three. We did #41 and Grey Street by DMB, plus the DMB version of the Dylan original "All along the watchtower". It's the most uncomfortable I've ever felt on stage but the crowd was actually quite appreciative of our efforts. I'm still hoping Sep gets a more stable schedule so we can gig again soon.

Party for Raffa's 30th birthday

Raffa turned 30 the other day but Joh set up a birthday dinner for him last Friday night in Claw Daddy in Bonifacio High Street. Most of our barkada are already living abroad, and it just so happened that Pia was in Batanes and Meann in the US that day. So only Peegee and I made it to dinner. Joh invited Raffa's team as well - most of whom I knew - but she also invited Raffa's high school batchmates. Peegee had to leave early, and once dinner was done, so did the rest of Raffa's team. So I ended up hanging out with Raffa and Joh and Raffa's high school friends, having cheesecake and coffee in Miss Desserts in Serendra 'til past midnight. It was a great night filled with lot of great food and fun conversation. Thanks again for the blowout, Raffa! :)

Tennis talk

Novak Djokovic, currently #3 in the world, won his first Grand Slam title last Sunday in Melbourne, beating the unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.

This is an amazing result because it is the first time in 3 years that neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal won, or made it to the final of, a Grand Slam tournament. The last time this happened was also in the Australian Open 2005, where Marat Safin saved a matchpoint in the semifinal against Federer and defeated Leyton Hewitt in the title match. If you are counting, that makes 11 consecutive Grand Slam titles that were won by either Federer or Nadal. Now that's an incredible statistic.

What I loved about this result is that it allowed Steffi Graf to hold on to one of her records. She currently holds the record (for both men and women) for consecutive Grand Slam final appearances with 13. If Roger made this final, it would've been his 11th in a row. She already lost her record of consecutive weeks at #1 to Federer so as much as I like Federer, I was hoping that he wouldn't manage to snatch another record from Steffi.

One other record people were hoping that Roger would achieve this year was winning the Golden Slam i.e. the Grand Slam of tennis - Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and US Open - plus the Olympic Gold medal. By losing the AO final, that means he surely won't be able to achieve this feat this year (his next shot at this record would be four years from now). Of course, both Djokovic and Maria Sharapova, who won the women's title, both have a shot at winning the Golden Slam themselves. But I wouldn't put my money on that. Which gives me high hopes that after 2008, Steffi Graf will remain as the only player so far to have won the Golden Slam.

And the AI7 saga begins

American Idol kicked off season 7 this week. They showed us a couple of great performances already, and more than a few crazy ones. Honestly, you see some of them and you think that they just want their 15 minutes of fame. Or infamy. Some of them seem to force bad auditions just to get on TV - we've seen that happend in previous seasons as well - and then there are still some people who think they can sing but aren't really good (and in some cases, just downright dreadful). Of course we've witnesses some damn good auditions already, but the judges have also let a couple of people through whom I thought were not worthy. Or it could just be me...

The highlight of the 4-hours we've seen this season so far though has been overnight sensation Renaldo Lapuz, who apparently is Filipino (probably migrated to the US and is now naturalized or something). How they allowed a 44-year old to audition, I don't know. And in all honesty, the first few minutes of his audition made me cringe.

But as the audition went on and the judges started to get really into it, singing along with the lyrics that they ended up learning after hearing the verses sung over and over to them, I started to get really entertained LOL. Before I knew it, I was in stitches! Here's a video clip of his audition:

video posted in youtube by user bobbageddon

What's scary about this is that the song is actually quite catchy, and after hearing him sing it so many times, it's a bit tough to get out of your head LOL. Folks were singing it after the show, and a lot of those who watched the episode last night just had to look it up in youtube immediately after to enjoy the show once again. And share it to those who didn't get to see it yet!

Simon predicted that the song would be a hit. I don't know if anyone is actually going to record it but if they add a couple of verses, get a really good singer to perform it, it could actually be a great song - possibly even better than those lame Idol finale songs like 'Inside your heaven', 'Do I make your proud', and 'My Destiny' haha. Either that or they use it as the theme song for Idol Gives Back (assuming they have another one this season).

So I guess after four seasons, we now have our new William Hung LOL.

Not the best way to start the year...

I'm sick! Damn.

I actually didn't go to work on Monday and Tuesday coz I was feeling horrible. My throat was sore, I had an awful headache for most of the day, and my body just didn't feel right. I also had a bad ache in my shoulder/neck/upper back area. Had it since the weekend actually. I was planning to hit the gym on Saturday because for the first time in weeks, my Saturday was free. Also, after my third gym session, my body didn't ache from the workout anymore. Unfortunately, when I woke up on Saturday, I had a horrible pain in my shoulder, neck, and upper back, the kind you get when you sleep in the wrong position. It really hurt all the way through Tuesday, and it was only on Wednesday that the pain abated just a bit. The crappy thing though is that it still hurts today. Not as much as a few days ago though so thank God for small mercies.

At first I thought that it may be due to the fact that I've been running myself ragged for the last few to several weeks and my body finally gave way. But when I came back to work yesterday, I realized that a lot of other people were also sick. And I have another couple of friends who are sick right now too. Makes me think that there may be some bug going around...

I just hope that I am completely well by Saturday. I am attending two weddings - Hestia and Migoy are getting married in the morning and Jenny and Aaron are getting married in the evening. And to complicate matter, I am singing three fairly difficult songs in Jenny's wedding. If my throat doesn't clear up, it's not going to be pretty. I just started taking meds yesterday and drinking a whole lot more water. Hopefully that does the trick.

Iceland: Day 6

My final day in Iceland. I spent the day just going around Reykjavik. I left my stuff at the left luggage booth in the SBA bus terminal then started thinking whether I still wanted to take aany of the half-day tours offered in the capital. There’s a Puffin Express tour that lasts only an hour - you go on a boat and get really close to these very colorful birds. I decided not to take that tour since I had seen puffins already (albeit not up close and personal) and I instead opted to take a riding tour.

There are a few tours offered where folks get to ride the famous Icelandic horse, and some of these tours don’t require any riding experience. The main reason I wanted to take this tour is that the Icelandic horse is famous for providing riders with a very smooth and comfortable ride. Unfortunately, when I called them, they were apparently fully booked already. So that meant I had a slow day (finally!) to go around the city.

I made my way to the Sólfar (Sun Voyager), a unique sculpture created by Jón Gunnar Árnason. My book didn’t mention it, but since I kept seeing it in postcards so I swung by the Tourist Information Center to ask where the sculpture was.

My flight was departing Reykjavik for Copenhagen at 1am the next day and the last bus to the airport was at 10pm so I had lots of time left. I spent the rest of the day looking for and buying souvenirs. I had gone over-budget already, so I was just thinking of getting a few little trinkets like magnets and key chains. But I figured it would be a long while before I would ever get to visit Iceland again, and Iceland t-shirts aren’t exactly the easiest to find anywhere else in the world. So I decided to get a shirt for myself, my mom, and my two nephews.

Here's a summary of all my Iceland blog posts:
Day 1: Blue Lagoon and Hallgrímskirkja
Day 2: Glacier Lagoon Tour
Day 3: Whale-Watching in Reykjavik
Day 4: The Golden Circle
Day 5: Trip to Dettifoss and the Jewels of the North tour
Day 6: Last day in Iceland

However, if I had to do this trip over again, I’d make a couple of changes in my itinerary and have the following instead:

Day 1
Go around Reykjavik and visit the Blue Lagoon via (Iceland Excursions)

Day 2
South Coast & Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon tour

Day 3
Take the Gulfoss and Geysir Express, then take the last flight to Akureyri. This is about a thousand pesos cheaper than the Golden Circle Classic and you get to visit practically all the same places that you see in the Golden Circle Classic as well. The only two places you skip are the Nesjavellir Power Plant and the Skálholt church, which I personally think you can miss. The Gulfoss and Geysir Express also takes about 2-3 hours less, so you end up being more rested

Day 4
Jewels of the North tour

Day 5
Take a whale-watching tour and spend some time going around Húsavík
As I mentioned, Húsavík is apparently the best place in Iceland to see whales. And taking this tour from Akureyri would actually take less time and money than taking the Ólafsvík tour from Reykjavik.

Day 6
Go around Akureyri in the morning, fly back to Reykjavik at around lunchtime, then take one of the Icelandic Horse riding tours in the mid-afternoon.

So now I just spent six amazing days in Iceland. But my holiday wasn’t over yet. Next stop: Austria!