Floyd Mayweather Jr. KOs 7-footer Paul‘Big Show’ Wight at WrestleMania XXIV

This is one big show indeed! Floyd Mayweather Jr., the current WBC Welterweight Champion, is undefeated even in professional wrestling. He knocked out his opponent in his debut fight. So how did Floyd win it against a giant in front of the 74,635 fans at the Citrus Bowl? I really couldn’t imagine. First, it was the help from the corner. They gave the boxer a metal folding chair and brass knuckles. But it was a brass-knuckled right hook to Big Show’s jaw that brought the big man down.

What will Hatton, de la Hoya or even Manny Pacquiao say about it? Obviously, they’d chorus, “It’s plain entertainment and not a true fight.” Oh well, let them fight in WWE themselves and face giants. Fighting a 7-footer giant in 400-pounder Paul “Big Show” Wight is not a small joke. A choke from his bare hands or a bump from his body can make anyone spit blood.

Nicely choreographed, huh? So what? It’s the $20M that matters for Floyd’s camp. And for WWE, it a new record for live gate proceeds of $5.85M. Maybe they should feature Manny Pacquiao next time.

While Waiting for the 2007 Philippine Bar Exam Results...

UPDATE: 2007 Bar Exam Topnotchers and list of successful examinees here.

While waiting for the 2007 Philippine Bar Exam Results, I will give recognition to my online friends who successfully hurdled the bar exams in the past. These are the blogging lawyers:

The Bystander
Toe
Lawstude
Aryo
Major Tom
Ladybug

My hats off to these great people. May you continue to shine in your profession!

2007 Philippine Bar Exams Results

The Supreme Court official website says that “The results of the 2007 Bar Examinations will be released tomorrow, March 29, 2008.”

(note: If you are looking for the 2008 Bar Examination results, click here: 2008 Philippine Bar Exam Results and List of Passers)

The exam was held at the De La Salle University on Taft Avenue in Manila in the four Sundays of September 2007. A total of 5,626 law graduates from 109 schools nationwide took the bar exams. The results of the last three years showed that of the 17,000 plus takers, only 29.8% passed. It is an average of 1,700 additional lawyers a year. It’s not really a scary figure.

The results will be posted at the Supreme Court’s official website. The list of the names will also be displayed in LCD projectors to be strategically placed at the Supreme Court front yard near its Padre Faura entrance. I also think that plenty of blogs will post the results to divert traffic to their sites. Search the keyword "2007 Philippine Bar Exams Results" on google and you'll see what I mean.

I can feel the excitement rising right now, as bar exam takers, their schools, friends and relatives are probably monitoring the radio, internet, TV and even SC insiders for the release of the results. It's an agony to some, but hope to the others. I would also understand if someone is hiding at this moment, detaching himself from any form of media and communication. He will most likely reappear 3 days after the bar exam results are released. It is actually a strategy to cushion the grief in case of failure.

One of those who took the exams is a work colleague of mine. When I asked him about his chances a couple of months ago, he just smiled and said, “Dios na bahala!” I just wish all the best to the bar exam takers!


UPDATE: List of new lawyers is not available at the SC website. You may click here.

160-year Old Church Building Destroyed By Fire

I took a picture of its façade weeks ago when I visited the place. I had been inside the church just twice in my lifetime and could not remember the content of its dark halls. I know that the Oslob Church is one of the oldest church structures here in Cebu and is considered a heritage site. Oslob is a town 117 kilometers south of Cebu City and is my dad’s hometown.

But a fire that struck at early dawn yesterday destroyed the 160-year old building and the nearby convent. The cause is said to be a faulty wiring that first gutted the ceiling of one of the rooms. And the irony is that, the fire station is just 50 meters away. The town’s only two fire trucks were for repair, and the firemen and some residents really had to push the truck with a functioning hose. Superman and Batman were not there to help them, so they sought assistance from neighboring towns who were very quick to respond. The fire was under control by 430 am, as reported in the news.

Parishioners cried of course. In this town, the church is like a second home to them. The cost of the damage has not yet been reported and it seems that everything, including the precious archives, vanished with the fire. Surprisingly, the framed wooden image of the Immaculate Conception, secured by a glass case, was found intact in the ruble. “It’s a miracle!” they exclaimed.

Oh, yeah! This month is supposed to be a Fire Prevention Month. The defective trucks were previously reported to proper authorities and funds were already allocated. But someone is sleeping on his job.

Dotcom Site Still Down

It has been a week now and my dotcom site is still down. Prior to the re-setup, there was not a day that my site was up 100%. I envied my friend. His site is up most of the time, enjoying his targeted traffic. I did not really know the root cause of the problem so I sought help. I even installed a web host tracker on my site. But what can you do when the tech support is on a holiday or off duty?

“Patience is a virtue” I reminded my self many times now. But there are others who do not have the same kind of patience. They want the best web hosting company, and demand the best from it. 24/7 tech support, reliability, affordability and excellent service; these are very important for the website owners.

It’s really frustrating seeing your site appear now, then disappear later like bubbles. Part of effective blog planning is really choosing the best web hosting.

HTTP 404

That's what you will see if you'll visit my other blog. It didn't crash because of traffic or some bombings. I had it resetup but I messed it up. I accidentally deleted some important files and I am not sure if I backed it up enough.

I even had an entrecard contest running in there to celebrate its first month. Maybe I had to double the prize as consolation for the anticipating participants. I could have declared the winner last Wednesday evening but I was left without a choice.

I just hope the tech guy from my webhost can fix it by tomorrow. I have plenty of entries lined up for that thing.

And for leftover thoughts, I am desperate of a new blogger template. I already scouted some nifty templates but my next problem is how to upload it. I don't want another HTTP 404.

The Way We Blog

It has been two good years of blogging. Ups and downs really.

You know the excitement when you first created your blog. You don’t even know what name to use: Real or an alias. Then you ponder deeply on the title, and think hard only to end up including “thoughts” in your blog name. Then you type your first ever post. Hello, world that is, or whatever your first post title is. Then you begin to explore the complexities of the blog design and settings. You smile when you get your first commenter. You reply with excitement and quickly follow your visitor’s link.

“You have a very nice blog. Thanks for visiting mine.” you say truthfully to your new friend. Then follows the exchanges of visits and comments. You do every effort to make a friendly comment, and at the same time put enough care in your every post.

Later on they ask for ex-links. “What is an ex-link? What is a blogroll?” you ask. Then your friends begin telling you what to do. You add a blogroll, a tagboard, and everything else your friends adorn in theirs.

It took you half a year before you realize that your blog design sucks. It is not actually, but you begin to envy others with beautiful blog templates. So you decide to change templates, and change templates again, till a smile returns to your face.

After a week or two of non-posting and non-hopping, you post an apology citing reasons here and there. Friends assure you that it’s fine. Then you realize that others don’t do an apology at all.

A year of happy blogging, you earn a page rank. But you don’t know what it is or how your friends know about it. Then someone mentions paids post and the PR. You check them out and even comment innocently on a sponsored entry.

A few months after your first paid post encounter from a friend’s site, they begin to flaunt their earnings. What dollars? Is it true that they earned a thousand bucks or more a month? Then you find out it’s pretty easy. So, you join the bandwagon and fill your blog with 30 to 40 posts a month, half of which earns at least $10 per post. Not bad, eh as you begin to see money flowing in your paypal account.

But at the downside, you begin to lose your usual commenters, and even readers. Deep down within you know you worked hard on every post, even incorporating your own experience that even without a sponsor you’d write them anyway sometime in the future. But there are times when you even loathe some of your own entries. So you can’t really blame them. Then now, Google takes away your prized PR, and along with it, the monetary opportunities.

I sit down and ponder. 2 years of ups and downs in blogging. The motivation is really not the money, the PR, or the approval of friends. I blog because I love to.

The Business Is Finished: Pacquiao Won Over Marquez

National disaster averted. GMA took a breather of relief. Rebels and soldiers braced arms in arms. Churches in the Philippines sing hallelujahs! The Filipino nation can say that they have a hero in their fold. We can now unite and put aside ZTE for a while, at least for a week just for the victory celebration. Bloggers are racing to get on top of SERP. Manny Pacquiao won on a split decision over Marquez. Judges Dwayne Ford and Tom Miller scored it 115-112 and 114-113, respectively, in favor of the Filipino. Jerry Roth scored it 115-112 for the deposed champ.

It was not a knockdown as expected by the Filipinos, but it was very close. Manny floored Marquez on the third round but was able to get up quickly. Both suffered cuts in the middle rounds and exchanged strong and lethal blows till finish. It was a really good fight and a close one. All the other pretenders can just watch in awe.

So what is next for Manny? I hope he won’t reenter politics. It’s a dirtier place and a dive from his lofty hero status. Why doesn’t he consider a fight with de la Hoya instead? It is not impossible and would definitely draw more money.

Pleading For Your Votes

Here's one shameless plugging from me. Vote for BLOGCEBUWORLD as the Filipino Blog of the Week for week 100 there at Talksmart's site.

I copied the code here for your convenience. Vote once a day starting now till the morning of March 22.

Which Filipino blog would you like to be featured for week 100? [please read new rules]
	savetheearth-now
	homoscedastic
	BLOGCEBUWORLD
	exoticmalyn
	paintmehappysmile
	pinay-american
	writeshy
	earvin01
	rjnaguit
	intiendes
Thanks Pollhost

Thank you very much my friends!

Pacquiao-Marquez Part 2: If Pacquiao Loses To Marquez

The whole of Mexico will definitely rejoice as if they conquered the whole of the Philippines. The streets will be filled with revelers, tables turned over at bars, stores looted and probably cars will be burned. I am imagining here a football world cup victory scenario which is unlikely to be matched by boxing, even if exaggerated.

De La Hoya would be smiling from ear to ear but it will be business as usual for Bob Arum. Those who wanted to beat Pacquiao like Valero, Diaz and Chris John will be filled with envy and would direct their ire at Marquez. Marquez will go to an undisclosed location to relax, still in awe of his controversial win despite his disfigured face. He will probably contemplate on retirement after having beaten the best fighter of his class.

What about the Philippines and the Filipinos? The streets will be empty and you will see people moving out from cinemas and bars with PPV airing the fight with heads bowed as if they lost half of their life and earnings along with loverboy Manny. They will go straight home, kick the dog on the door, sleep and avoid the sports news of the day.

After the brief undeclared ceasefire between the government and rebel forces, the sour losers will raise their arms and shoot like crazy. Those who win because they placed their bets on the Mexican will silently withdraw from the crowd and avoid any sign of ecstasy because a punch may fly anywhere. They too will wear a frown emphatizing with a mourning nation.

The day after, the protesters will be back on the streets demanding oil price rollback and for GMA to step down. Some sectors will even demand for Pacquiao’s retirement and a possibly, a senate inquiry of his winnings, and who gets kickbacks. It’s public knowledge that some high powers will be in Vegas on fight night.

To avert chaos, Manny should win this fight!

Car Insurance Is A Must

A decade ago, my dad’s vehicle was stolen. It was just parked in an unlighted street while they went to an uncle house to attend a party. They immediately reported it to the police who had not really acted on it. For months my dad and a neighbor tried to locate the vehicle even traveling to the neighboring islands. But their efforts were fruitless. The vehicle was not covered with a comprehensive insurance, and it was really a big loss for us.

They already lost hope when one of the children at church reported that he saw dad’s vehicle in their neighborhood. My dad and a few of his friends went there to find out. To his surprise, a policeman claimed ownership of the vehicle saying he bought it from someone. But a family friend who happened to be a close friend of a certain police general assisted my father. He contacted the general who immediately called up the policeman and commanded him to return the vehicle without question. There the lowly-ranked officer obliged. We got our vehicle back, almost a year after it was stolen.

In another story, a boss drove home sleepy from a meeting with a client. At 2am, he parked his Pajero in the sidestreet in front of his house. When he woke up, the car was already gone. Good thing his vehicle was covered with a comprehensive car insurance. He got paid.

Car insurance is a must these days. If you happen to be in a collision with another vehicle, imagine the cost to repair your car, his car, and the medical treatment of your injuries. Visit EZ Insurance Portal and make sure you are adequately insured.

GMA Koreanovela: The Legend

There is a new koreanovela in GMA7: The Legend. I saw the first episode the other night but I have not fully grasped the whole story. The youtube video of the Bb Pilipinas interview portion distracted my attention.

I just have to set aside some questions and turn to some blogs or websites, or wikis for backgrounders later. I love movies like this. I just hope there would be more martial arts action and magic.

Oh by the way, the more you are exposed to korean individuals, the more you appreciate that they actually are well behaved people. My sister brought a korean student of hers to our hometown for a weekend exposure. He has this likeable attitude. My hats off to Michael.


(photo from the internet)

New Blog Look

It's been a while since I changed the look of this blog from a two column template to a 3-column one. It was just a little tweaking of the html codes learned from some informative site. I know that the columns didn't look good on outdated internet explorers, but I just assumed that all my readers and visitors were either using the latest IE's or Firefox browsers.

But now, the time for me has come to have a blog overhaul. It's my 2nd blog birthday next week so that would be a valid reason. And I have to find a template as cool-looking as this blog. It would still be colored green but maybe of lighter shade. Green is not really my favorite color.

Ramiele Malubay: In American Idol’s Top 12

The 20 yr-old Ramiele Malubay is now on American Idol’s top 12. Her YahooTV! Biography says that “she currently lives in Miramar, FL, but was born in Saudi Arabia and spent her early years in the Philippines”. Duh, everybody knows that.

I have not heard her sing, or watched you tube videos of her. I just read her name in many entertainment news and publication. But since she is a Filipina, I will root for her. One does not really have to mind the scandalous photos now in the internet. They aren’t really scandalous.

But what interest me more is her name. Ramiele is a very cute and unique name for a lady. I am sure that plenty of babies born in 2008 will surely be named after her. And some would even dare name their pets Ramiele.

Go, Ramiele and win this idol contest. I hope Mr. Cowell will be nice to you till the end.

NBI Hit Part 3

The other day, my wife and I went to NBI region 7 to have our clearance for international travel. We were turned down coz they ran out of official receipts that day. Whatta! We were told to return Wednesday.

With the help of a close friend, we skipped the long queue this afternoon. My wife got her NBI clearance but mine was still pending. I'm hit again. They said that it will take three weeks to get my clearance. The last time, it was only one week. Does it mean that their efficiency has depreciated?

If you ask me why the "hit", it has nothing to do with my own record. I have a very unique first and last names but my middle name, FLORES, is very common. My uncle was once imprisoned because he has the same name as their town's most wanted person. He was released the next day because of the mistaken identity. Oh well, we didn't choose our names in the first place. I'm gonna return to their office in two weeks.

Finishing The Term Paper

One of the most difficult challenges a student will face is the term paper. It is often referred to as thesis or research papers. Many students dropped out from school, or shed many tears of frustrations because they just could not find a way to complete their projects.

I remembered my first encounter of the term paper when I was in high school. I worked alone on it. I chose a very uncommon topic which was appreciated by the teacher. But I did not know it was gargantuan task. I had few resource materials, even our own library lacked the necessary reference books. But I was able to find a way by interviewing experts on the subject.

A classmate was wily enough to invent his own materials, jumbling our names as book authors. It was a risky act that could merit school stiff disciplinary action. But he got away with it.

Today, one does not really have to fear doing term papers, or the intimidating essays that teachers throw at their students. By joining Peerpapers.com, one of the largest, most-trusted databases of essays, term papers, book reports and research paper, you will find the much needed information to complete your assignments. Over 100,000 A+ grade papers covering all topics are in their databases.

The little investment you will make in joining Peerpapers.com goes a longer way than having to repeat the course and miss graduation.

Some Good Moments

Oh, some good things! I won 500 entrecard credits from Kotsengkuba. Because I voted for him, I was eligible for the random selection. Thank you very much, sir! I guess it's time for me to enter this site into entrecard's fold to make use of those credits. I'm still thinking of an attractive logo.

Next, my newest site (a dotcom this time) is nominated in Talksmart's Filipino Blog of the Week. I would have wanted to delay my announcement till the 2nd year anniversary of this blog, but I guess I have to do this sooner.


The voting is done HERE. Or you can visit my newest baby HERE and vote at the sidebar. You can vote once everyday till Friday, or if I get nominated again, till next week. My blog site is just 13 days old today and I'm not even campaigning in the tagboards of my online friends or at the sites I hopped into. Just the normal read and comment thing, or else someone would be annoyed. I'm currently running fourth and the leaders just zoomed ahead. So I need more votes.

If you ask me what the prize is, it's a week of being featured in a Talksmart's website plus a little badge one can flaunt in the sidebar. AJ is a previous winner, and you can check out his site as well.

Waffles, Anyone?

When I was a kid, everytime my mom would do groceries, she would also bring me to a store in the downtown selling waffles. She would always tell me to behave and be a good kid, and not demand for some toys to buy. I would silently obey because I would not want to miss out on the waffles. It’s one of my favorite snacks.

When I got married, my wife and I bought what we think is the best waffle maker. We had a heyday making waffles for both of us and our nieces and nephews. But the equipment got busted after a few months.

At Wize.com, you can read reviews and ratings of the best waffle maker in the market. The reviews are made by real people and actual users. Your search for the best waffle maker should end here. It’s time to enjoy the waffles.

Oust GMA! GMA Resign!

The above are just some of the messages from the banners I saw at a rally in Fuente Osmeña, Cebu the other day. The local daily says that fewer than 1,000 participants attended the rally.

My friend, the Bystander, posted in his blog a very clear and concise distinction between Edsa1 and Edsa2, which I also think is connected with my title above.

Though I may not like GMA, I don’t want either option. Who is worthy to replace her at this moment? They could all be of the same feathers. Let her clean up her acts and let us wait for 2010. Time flies so fast. We all know how stubborn she and her cohorts are, and how indifferent most people are today. Let us just continue to pray for our nation. We can survive all of this.

Personalised Car Number Plates

Don’t you want your own personalised car plate number and car registrations? I was really curious how come one of my bosses has the same numbers for all his three cars. His driver mentioned that he bought them all.

At Northumbrianumbers.com, it is easy to search for ageless car registrations, prefix type personalised number plates and current style number plates in UK. I tried to input my initials and then pressed ‘search’. The results showed the available numbers and the prices.

One does not have to worry about the paperwork, because they will facilitate it for you. Have that personalized number plates now before someone else gets it first.