I have always been a Laker fan ever since I learned about the NBA (National Basketball Association). I grew up watching Magic Johnson, James Worthy and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar when there was no cable. I don’t remember how I first saw them play. I know I first saw them play on TV but I quite vividly remember renting betamax tapes to watch their games. I never changed allegiance when they went from perennial contenders to perennial doormats, back to perennial contenders etc. My loyalty is to the team and not to its players. (You hear that Shaq?!)

Anyways, you could say that I watched Kobe grow in front of my very own eyes. This article very articulately documents his evolution. I have never seen Kobe this way (how the author put it all together elegantly) and yet it seems like I have always known all along what this author is trying to say.

At age 24, Kobe was remarkably like Jordan — and somehow, not him, akin to a musical prodigy, capable of playing any sonata the seasoned concert pianist could, yet somehow, lacking the intangible quality that distinguished the genius from the flawless imitator… Read more »

Astronomers predict that the earth will be swallowed up by the sun in 7.6 billion years.  However, life on earth will probably end sooner than 1 billion years – it will become very hot to live on.

Some scientists believe there’s a way to escape the sun’s wrath by using a passing asteroid’s gravity to budge the earth out of harm’s way.  Now, there’s another plot for a new sci-fi movie.

I always wonder why the days and months come by so fast.  When I was still in school the days seemed slower.  I guess maybe it’s because we are slowly getting closer to the sun (it takes less time to revolve around the sun).  I’m saying this as a half-meant joke.

Last January, I wrote about how Network Solutions stole my domain name. It turns out that I am not the only one who has observed this. You can say I’m quite naive, thinking I’m the only one who has noticed this scam.

Another article even discusses the trick pricing I complained about:

This allows Network Solutions to continue charging substantially higher prices for domain name registration. Network Solutions charged $34.99 to register the name sought by this suit’s lead plaintiff. A competitor would have charged $9.99.

Apparently, it’s not only Network Solutions who practice this evil scheme. I really hope the authorities penalize these companies to kingdom come. Thinking of a new and cool domain is no joke. I didn’t work for a whole day thinking of cool domain names for my blog and my other Web sites. If you ask me, they should pay at least $1,000 for every name they stole in favor of the person who made the name search.

Ever since 2002 (I think), I started to ditch my curly (I’d like to think of it as wavy) hair for a semi-bald cut. I like the semi-bald cut. I don’t have to comb and it’s not that hot in the head. My hair is not greasy anymore, too. Having said that, my previous hairstyle, the short-cut-then-apply-hair-gel-then-comb-with-fingers look, was more cooler in my opinion. I believe I was more handsome with that look – OK, this is my blog so I can say whatever I want to say. But you know what, if you’re handsome, any haircut works, hehe.

The only problem I had with having the semi-bald cut is that when I go to a barber shop (or a beauty salon) and they effortlessly clip my hair, they still charge me the same price. I understand the logic of the same pricing, of course.

This problem, together with my general reluctance to go to a barber shop or beauty salon on any day, pushed me to buy my very own hair clipper. I just bought it today and I immediately used it. Come to think of it, it took me about eight years to figure this out.

You’ve seen Demi Moore in “G.I. Jane”, right? She clipped her own hair very easily…. NOT! Hollywood is so full of crap. I can clip the top, front and sides of my head just fine but was having problems clipping the back. My poor wife was “forced” to do the clipping at the back side of my head. She’s afraid of doing anything with my hair lest I scold her if she does something bad. She doesn’t know that it’s OK whatever happens (sort of, hehe).

So there, I am my own barber. I’m sure in time, I will learn how to clip the hair at the back side of my head. Actually, I’m looking forward to my second “self-haircut”. Do I sound pathetic?

If this is authentic, I would say “Told you so!”. They are all corrupt (except GMA, hehe). OK, I think I heard somewhere that Jun Lozada has admitted to being one of the actors in this conversation.

Let’s disregard, for a minute, the fact that this wire tap is illegal. If Abalos’s (did I type that right?) threat is true, I can understand how he could think of threatening Jun Lozada. It seems they were laughing at the expense of Abalos, hehe.

However, threat or no threat, if we are to believe everything Jun Lozada says, let us not forget that he should be included as guilty to graft and corruption as well since he was insinuating that if the “commission” is lowered to about 20% of the ZTE contract price, the whole endeavor is good to go. What’s worse, I don’t think I heard any violent reaction from the opposition senators upon hearing the acceptable 20% “commission” rate.