All I Want for Christmas Is...

Photo Credits: Philip Sison

Yes, its that time of the year again, when everyone gets a chance to wish for something, and in the spirit of the holiday season, I'm coming up with my...

Top 7 Wish / Want List for Christmas:

1) A Lakers-Celtics Finals: I don't really root for any particular team in the NBA nowadays, the only team I actually rooted for were the 80's Showtime Lakers, after that, I only rooted for the teams that Kenny Anderson (My all-time favorite NBA player, and don't ask me why, because I don't know either) played for, the Nets, Hornets, Blazers and the Celtics. Now that he's retired, I'm basically an NBA orphan, a diehard NBA fan without a favorite team. Having said that, I still enjoy a good game, and for the past 3 years, the Lakers-Celtics Games have been the hottest ticket in town. Here's hoping that they do meet up again in the Finals this coming June, 2010.

2) Classic Transformers & GI Joe Toys: Come on Hasbro, more of the 80s version of these toys please. I know that you had to come up with updated (i.e. movie versions) of the toys to attract a new and younger fan base, but please please please, do not forget about your loyal fans, those who stuck with you through the bad years...bring back the Classic Transformers and GI Joes in their original packaging. For TF, I want a Classics/Henkei Wheeljack and Jazz. For GI Joe, I want a Shockwave, Wet-Suit, Hit & Run and Big Boa, and in original packaging please, none of the comic 2-pack and/or 7 pack crap.

3) A new and improved version of Mafia Wars: Actually, I'll settle for a working version of Mafia Wars. Please get your act together before its too late, too many issues on page loads, request errors and long loading times. And while you're at it, can you also give me a Liger and an Impression so that I can complete my Tigers Unleashed and Moscow Loot collection. A CM Dragon ( from Cuba Crates) and a Bugatti Veyron (from Limited Edition Loot) would also help in beefing up my car loot collection.

4) A World Series Championship for the Atlanta Braves: Huge Atlanta Braves fan, ever since the early 1990s. Next year will be Bobby Cox's last season as manager of the Braves, and as they say, "Let's win one for the skipper"

5) A Superbowl Championship for the New England Patriots: I know I know, it doesn't look too good right now, the defense is suspect, the offense is inconsistent, and Bill Belichick has been gasp...human. But hey, anything can still happen, and it doesn't hurt that they're still led by the immortal Tom Brady. Let's go Pats!

6) A Three-Peat for the Ateneo Blue Eagles in the UAAP: We are now entering year 3 of the Ryan Buenafe saga, and it promises to be another championship-filled year for the Blue Eagles. Ever since Ryan donned the blue and white, the team has won back-to-back UAAP and Uni-Games Championships, and 1 PCCL National Championship. That's 5 major championships in a span of 2 years (more on this on my next post...Vengeance Mode). And for next year, I have this feeling that Coach Black will finally unleash Ryan on the rest of the UAAP. Yikes!

7) Peace and Goodwill on Earth...and of course, an election win for Noynoy Aquino and Mar Roxas.

Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to all.

Holiday Readings

Photo Credits: Bill Simmons and Rick Olivares

Picked up a couple of books (okay, 1 book and 1 journal) these past few days. The first one is The Book of Basketball, by Bill Simmons, the other one is The 18th Banner, by Rick Olivares. Thoroughly enjoyed reading both of them.

The Book of Basketball
The NBA According to The Sports Guy
by: Bill Simmons

I was actually thinking of ordering the book from Amazon, but luckily, while looking around at Fully Booked Rockwell the other day, I saw a hardbound copy in their hobby/sports section and quickly picked it up.

I've been a huge fan of Bill Simmons since 1997, dating back to the days of his independent site (a site hosted by AOL I think), bostonsportsguy.com. During those days, he basically writes about the Boston area professional sports teams, the Celtics, Red Sox and the Patriots (maybe a bit of the Bruins too, before he totally lost interest in the NHL). He writes it from a fan's perspective, which in a way is refreshing because you could almost actually relate to him when you read his articles. He also has a tendency to include pop-culture references to his sports articles, which make them infinitely more entertaining. An example would be, instead of writing a straight forward piece about what happened during the most recent NBA off-season, he would somehow manage to write it using quotes from a movie (in this case, Almost Famous) He's a bit mainstream now, moving to LA and becoming a columnist for ESPN's Page 2. Although this has given him more access to the sports and pop-culture world, he still manages to be true to his roots, that of writing something that the fans or an everyday person can relate to (now, if only he can write more often and podcast less). Anyway, check him out on his Page 2 site in ESPN: Sports Guy's World

About the book, it's a must read for NBA fanatics. My favorite parts are the What If Game and the Hall of Fame Pyramid. The book is quite long, almost 700 pages, but there's no need to read it from cover to cover since it is not your typical beginning-middle-end type of book wherein you have to read it in one sitting. Its actually like a compilation of several short articles, so you can pick it up and put it down as many times as you want.

For those of you who haven't bought it, two things to take note of before buying the book:

1) Do not buy the Kindle edition for this particular book, it contains tons of footnotes (which is integral to the stories) and reading it through Kindle would be awkward.

2) The paperback edition is due to come out sometime late next year, for those who want updated information, better wait for that version.

The 18th Banner
Ateneo's UAAP Season 71
by: Rick Olivares

I've been waiting for this ever since Rick Olivares mentioned it in his blog. When it finally came out last week, I immediately went to the Loyola Schools Bookstore in Ateneo and got myself a copy.

The journal details the path that the Ateneo Blue Eagles took towards winning the 2008 UAAP Men's Basketball Championship. While it was full of photos, game accounts and even statistics (boxscores are posted below each game story), honestly, I was a bit disappointed because I was expecting a lot more inside stories, and I was hoping to know more personal stuff about our hardcourt heroes (not the fan-girl stuff but you know, personal basketball stuff that only the team or insiders know, like who's the best student after Chris Tiu, who's the team clown, who arrives the earliest at practice and who stays the latest after practice, who trash talks the most - probably Eric Salamat and Ryan Buenafe in that order...but yeah, something along those lines).

I don't know, maybe I'm just a bit spoiled, as I do get a lot of information already from Rick's blog: Bleachers' Brew and from the different Ateneo basketball fora (specifically, Blue Eagles' Nest from the Gameface Forum) But don't get me wrong, I enjoyed reading the journal, and if you are in any way shape or form an Ateneo Blue Eagle fan, this is a must buy, a way to preserve the memories of that wondrous and epic season.

Anyway, try to get these books, you won't regret it. They're actually a nice segue to my next post, entitled Vengeance Mode. Stay tuned.

Nerdvana

Nerd (noun) - a technically bright but socially inept person; an intelligent but single-minded person obsessed with a nonsocial hobby or pursuit

Nirvana (noun) - a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world; an ideal condition of rest, harmony, stability, or joy

Nerdvana (noun) - ideal state of geekness

I first heard of the word Nerdvana from the sitcom Big Bang Theory (I love this show); the show mainly deals with the lives of 2 physicists (Leonard and Sheldon) and their interaction with their attractive blonde neighbor (Penny). Leonard and Sheldon's geekiness and intellect are contrasted with Penny's social skills and common sense for comedic effect. The term Nerdvana is often mentioned in the show to describe the pursuits of the lead characters...this would include Halo Night, Comic Book Night, Star Wars Marathon, ... etc.

Watching the show made me think what my own Nerdvana is, what truly makes me happy even without or with very minimal social interaction. Here is what I came up with so far:

1) My Toy & Comic Collection (mostly Transformers and GI Joe, with a sprinkling of Justice League of America);

2) My DVD Collection (wide range of genre, including war movies, teen flicks, cartoons, drama flicks and more)

3) Sports (NBA, MLB, NFL, and to a certain extent, the PBA)

4) Computer Games (currently addicted to Mafia Wars...used to eat sleep and drink Counter-Strike and Command and Conquer, also used to play console games)

5) Ateneo Blue Eagles (Back to Back, yeah baby!)

That is the list so far...my own personal Nerdvana