GAME OVER!

In case you haven’t heard yet, Asian Games is over. And for Team Philippines, it was a nightmare – but not as horrible as the Pilipinas Kay Ganda, which for me is a total disaster. It is so funny that we are just eyeing for four (!) medals – but in a struck of bad fortune – we only got 3 gold medals (no typo-error there, it is really t-h-r-e-e) while the Great Wall of China got 199. Schucks! We also got four silver and nine bronze medals which placed us at 19/45. It is our worst performance since 1998.

Add to my dismay, there was no media coverage of the event. Holy crap! It’s such a shame that even NBN didn’t cover the grandest sporting event in the continent. Isn’t that government-owned station have automatic rights to cover these kinds of spectacles? I’m not just sure though.

I’m not discounting the efforts of PSC and various NSAs but I believe that sports program in the country is so half-assessed. I know that our athletes can do much much better, given with proper support and training.

Here is my two-cent worth of (sensible) suggestions:

# 1. Why not build a sports academy? A world-class sports facility that will train potential medal earners. Where to get the fund, you may ask. Congressmen have P200M worth of pork each – why not share some of it to the athletes? Greed is a mortal sin, remember?

#2. I watched last Monday’s I-Witness episode and I learned that the monthly training allowance of our athletes is just between P5,000-P10,000. I think it’s very small. Is it possible if our national athletes would be paid with salaries rather than allowances? Then make them members of Philhealth, Pag-Ibig and SSS/GSIS, be entitled to 13th month pay, paid vacation and sick leave and a monthly pension after retirement.

#3. Let us concentrate on other sports aside from boxing, billiards and basketball. I’m thinking of archery. What you think? Archery doesn’t require the height of a basketball player or the power of a boxer. It only require skills and mental power, lots of it. Filipinos have all that.

#4. Let us send more athletes. We send more free-rider officials and their spouses than athletes. It’s an official trip, meaning taxpayers are footing their expenses, so perhaps we need to keep eye on this. Those officials are just after the free tour, anyway. We all know that so don’t argue.

#5. Pirate Chinese coaches. Or if not, train our athletes in China. Why not? They are world champs in almost everything. In the 2010 Asiad alone, they got 199 gold, 119 silver and 98 bronze medals, yeah, believe it or not.

And oh, before I forget… Let us put the rebels to good use. They are good in shooting, right? Why not get a medal for it? Lol, just kidding.

During the olden days, way before I was born, the Asiad is something that Filipinos look forward to. But now, it seems that most of us are losing interest. It made me sad that we, supposedly the savviest techie in this part of the world (I am thinking that if there’s an Asiad event for netsurfing, Filipinos would bag the gold, silver and bronze altogether. It’s a no brainer.) doesn’t capitalized on our internet prowess to significantly boost the confidence of our athletes. And it’s kinda disappointing.

Anyway, congratulations to Rey Saludar (boxing), Biboy Rivera (bowling), Dennis Orcollo (cue sports) and the rest of Team Philippines, regardless if they brought home a medal or not, for putting up a good fight in Guangzhou. My hugs, kisses and salutations!

TO TOP THE BOARD EXAM!

This shameless mudslinging and bickering of review centers against each other is getting on my nerves. It’s kinda pathetic and deeply insults the intellect of the students. They’re pandering to us like we’re bunch of morons. The hell!

They need money and this is a competition – yes, I know that for a fact. So, why I making such a big deal out of it? Of course, it is only appropriate that they must uphold at all times civility, discipline and respect for one another. They must always give the highest regard to the students, to appeal not to our emotions but to our intellect. We’re not after the drama; we are after the good results.

If we want to eradicate this BS practice, we must not tolerate it on the first place. We must start choosing a review center that believes in our innate potential to make it no matter what and therefore, recognize their sole responsibility to prepare us for the grand battle – that is the board exam.

But this “BS-mudslinging-thing” taught me that no review center will ever be free from error- not even one. So my task is to determine which errors I cannot live with and which one I can allow. It taught me that I must appraise every review center equitably for everything they have to offer, for what they have done, for what they have failed to do and most importantly, for the way they treat us.

So, I will take this opportunity to quantify in words my decision to choose SULTAN REVIEW GROUP.

One of the things I really admire about SRG is the way they maintain positivity amidst all the accusations being thrown at them. They never gave in to pressure and sling the mud back. They just clear the issues out and it’s up to us if we will believe it or not. There are very few that are capable of this.

I also cannot help but admire Prof. JP Jacomille, one of SRG’s topnotch reviewers respond to criticisms. He has no gimmicks/no fanfare/no entertainment in his lecture, something that may render the class weary and disinterested. But for me, that’s not an issue. His focus was to share in the best of his ability his knowledge, techniques and expertise and make sure that everyone has fully understood it. For this, he earned my salutations!

I cannot impose my will to you. I don’t write this to sway you in my thinking. I am not asking you to agree with me nor enroll in SRG even if you don’t want to because that would be a grave insult to your intellect. What I’m asking you is that you must weigh down your decision as objectively and as intelligently as possible and not just base it on malicious and misleading hate propaganda. You must be staunch enough to stand by your decisions without others butting in. Don’t let others make up your mind. Remember this is our future and this will only be up to us.

Jubert John R. Marzan
Reviewee, SRG Legazpi

I'll just make this short...

Oh my gawd! The first thing that came into my mind after seeing this photo is “I NEED TO FNCKING POST THIS”. I’ve seen a number of proposed logos for the proposed Manila Olympic bid but this one is so oooh-some. It blew me away.

& the kicker is: IMAGINE IT OURS. :))) Anong sinabi ng logo ng London or Beijing?

I BL♥G YOU!

I also posted this on my other blog. Please put your responses there as well.

For weeks (or was it months, I can’t tell), I was thinking of nothing but her. It was really kinda odd to me that a girl like her, who I wasn’t very close with, is starting to be a mainstay in my dreams.

Meet Jessa, my ultimate crush. She describes herself as “an average teenage girl but with enormous dreams”. Now, she’s in Bicol University – we’re schoolmates – and presumptuously, a smart ass. She calls me Kuya Hoobert. (She’s the only one to called me as such) Eww diba? But that name is starting to grow on me.

I met her last year through a common friend. It was your typical boy-meets-girl-girl-meets-boy scenario. It was really nothing special. I find her cute and her personality is, well, a towering fortress. She became kinda my crush that’s why I instantly added her as a Facebook contact. And that is how it all started. We slooowly became friends. Almost every night, we’re talking on Facebook. I love talking to her ‘cos she always makes me giggle. She must be the “Sixth Joyful Mystery” of the rosary.

While having our talk during one of those random Facebook nights, I learned that she’s also a blogger. Wow naman! Is this just mere coincidence or what? :)))

To be quite honest, I really don’t know why I’m writing this. And why I’m beginning to be more thoughtful to a girl I only have a crush with. I wasn’t like this before. I think I’m evolving. Sheeze!

But lemme clear things out. No, I’m not doing this ‘cos I’m hoping that my revelation will lead to something deeper, like love, maybe. I just need to get the feeling out of my chest. And yes, we’re friends and we’ll always be FRIENDS.

Oh gawd, this blog post is totally crap. It’s pulsing with cheese and corn. I must stop!

To find out about the girl that calls me Kuya Hoobert, check out Jessa’s personal blog - http://jettmbb18.tumblr.com/.

Jubert has spoken. Take that!