I'm not normally one to do these things but ... I first saw this on Erika's site and I think it is a wonderful idea.  I am hoping that most of you will take the time to post something.

If you read this journal,
even if I don't speak to you often,
post a memory of me.

It can be anything you want.
It can be good or bad,
just so long as it happened.

Then post this on your journal too!
Be surprised (or not)
about what people remember about you.

A bunch of geeks got together and decided they enjoyed bowling so much that it has become a regular thing. We practice 2 to 3 times a week, regularly on Thursdays, thus forming the separate Thursday Club.

On occasion, we participate in inter-fandom competitions.

Start:	Jan 30, '08 7:00p
Location:	AMF Puyat Sports (Farmer's Plaza, Cubao, Quezon City)

Bowling with some friends from SFF Bowlers.

Start:	Jan 15, '08 12:00p
End:	Jan 15, '08 2:00p
Location:	Robinson's Galeria

In a few hours I will be watching I and some friends will be watching the incomparable Johnny Depp in the awesome movie and musical, Sweeney Todd. My review to follow later today.
This movie also stars Helena Bonham Carter and was directed by Tim Burton.
Fabulous soundtrack by Stephen Sondheim.

Since we've recently taken up bowling a few of us have gotten more proficient (meaning our scores have improved, hehehe) and so we get asked on occasion for some quick lessons on bowling.

I haven't played in years and never really seriously, always just for fun so, since I don't want to give the wrong information to friends who ask me, I decided to do a little research on the 4 step delivery.  Here is what I got from Complete Bowling Index

Four Step Delivery Overview
by: Bob Strickland

---

The FOUR-STEP DELIVERY is the SIMPLEST and the easiest to TROUBLESHOOT. The reason is that the ball is pushed out right along with the first step. The ball is neither carried for a step as in the five-step delivery, nor moved before the first step, as in the three-step delivery. During the four-step delivery, there is something for the upper body to do in coordination with each step taken.

SETUP - Take your setup with your feet three to four inches apart and neither foot leading. Point your feet in the direction of your target. Do not lean forward; be generally upright, with your legs straight, your knees not bent, but not locked either. To help you relax your bowling hand and arm, hold the major portion of your ball's weight in your BALANCE HAND -- the hand opposite your bowling hand.

FIRST STEP - Move your ball at the same instant as you pick up your foot on the same side as your bowling arm--i.e. your SWINGSIDE FOOT. Push your ball straight ahead -- never down! Think of it as placing your ball on an imaginary table the same height as the ball was held in the setup. As your ball reaches the limit of your reach with both arms, your SWINGSIDE HEEL should just be making contact with the approach.

SECOND STEP - Let your ball simply FALL from the arms-extended into a PENDULUM SWING. Continue to keep your body upright; do not allow your head to follow your ball down into the swing! To help keep your shoulders level and squared with your swing, let your BALANCE ARM move to a position out, down, and back -- approximately 90 degrees to the plane of the swing -- at the same speed as your downswing. Your SLIDING HEEL should make contact with the approach as your ball is at the lowest point in the backswing.

THIRD STEP - Let your ball move up to the top of your backswing by its own force. Get gravity to work for you; do not use the muscles of your upper arm and back to hoist it any higher. If you do hoist your ball, your body will twist, your bowling shoulder will be pulled back, and your ball will become late relative to your footwork. As your ball reaches the top of your backswing, Your SWINGSIDE HEEL should make contact with the approach.

FOURTH STEP - Take your last step very slowly on your SLIDING SOLE, bending your swingside knee very deeply. This will give you a long slide and ample time to achieve a superior body position for your release. Keep your upper body upright and your balance arm in the position it attained during your second step. You will enjoy better leverage, less fatigue, and more consistently placed shots.

Remember a helpful little poem by bowling scholar Bill Taylor, with my own parenthetic explanations:

Push the ball        (place your ball on the imaginary table)
Let it fall               (let gravity take the ball down)
Point to the wall    (extend your balance arm out, down, and back)
Walk tall               (keep your back straight and stable)

Hope this advise helps our game. 

January 12 is the Heroes-Pirates bowling and I needed to bring my average up so I asked a few friends to join me in some bowling practice.  At around 7pm onwards I knocked over some pins with Beej, Hec, and much later, Nick.  Shey was supposed to join us.  Unfortunately, familial obligations called her away at the last minute.

Sadly, the printer of SM Bowling was not working so we weren't able to get printouts of our games.  Silly me, I had a camera in my bag it didn't occur to me to take photos of the scores.  Shows to go that I don't really get to play shutterbug, mostly 'cause I don't usually have a camera, hehehe.  I'm sure if Nick were there early, it would have occured to him.   Next time, I will make sure to shoot photos of the scores, at least, if not the players, hehehe.

In 5 successive games my personal scores were:

• 72 (Hec won)
• 113 (I won.  I think this was the game where I got a bunch of spares and 1 strike.)
• 85 (Beej won)
• 79 (Beej won again, this was a low scoring game for all of us.  Weird, no one even reached a 100.)
• 101 (I won again, yey!  I was lucky enough to get a strike in and a spare on my last frame.)

Both Hec and Beej managed to get at least 2 strikes each, per game.  At the first game Hec even got 3 strikes, woah!  I think I got a strike once.  Oftentimes the best I could do was a spare.  My average is higher, at least ... now if only I can be consistent and play the same or better on the 12th, hehehe.  Methinks more practice is in order, hehehe.

Photo was taken during the practice game before New Year when Erika was with us.  That was a low scoring pair of games for me.

It is past one in the morning and Erika and I have been busy baking and decorating cookies and muffins for her to bring to school in the morning.  This year, she decided that she was going to give her friends something she and I made.  

I definitely enjoy baking but the designing ... I leave to her capable hands.  My hand is just not steady enough to do the lettering she was doing.  Each sugar cookie was personalized with her friend's name.

Sadly, I don't have a photo to show for the efforts we made 'cause it didn't occur to us at the time to take a photo, and later, we were too tired to care.

I hope her friends enjoy what we made.

This must be a bad time of the year for me.  For some reason the littlest thing gets me down.

I was supposed to watch a movie with a friend tonight but he cancelled at the last minute.  I didn't think it was such a big deal, really, so I was quite surprised when I started to cry.  It's just a movie, for goodness sake!  It's not even a date!  It's 2 friends going out to watch a movie together.

I'm off to bed now and hoping to tomorrow things will get better.
Hmmm ... maybe I should start taking my medication again.  I can't help but feel that I need it.

Received a text from Lauren this evening reminding me about his gig at Boardwalk located near Sta. Lucia.  I completely forgot about it!  Thankfully it was early enough for me to go out and drag Kasuy with me.  I went to the gig unaware of just what kind of gig I was going to.  Was he dancing?  Singing?  Acting?  Modelling?  I had no idea!

I've seen Lauren sing, dance, and act (at Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal as Dodong) so I knew he would be able to do any of the above.

We arrived early (as requested) and chatted with Lauren before their set started.  Turns out he assembled an acoustic trio and they play every Saturday evening for three sets starting 9:30pm.  Their performance was pretty good.  There were some rough spots and tech adjustments but they were forgivable and adjustable.

Lauren even allowed us to do a duet (sort of) with him.  Actually, he wanted to invite us on stage but we opted to sit in our chairs and sing from there without a mic (there were no spares unless you count the one the owner of the place had at his table).  Of all the songs they performed, I think Paano by Gary V. was the one that showed off his voice the best.  He even got some of Gary's licks and added a few of his own.  It is refreshing to see Lauren in this type of performance.  Hopefully next week I could bring a few friends over to hear the group, too.  Anyone out there who wants to watch, let me know.  We can make it a group thing, hehehe.

18 April 2007 - Our friend Ricky leaves us and journeys to his place in the kingdom of heaven.
21 April 2007 - We, his friends, and his family bid him a final farewell.

Looking at the picture on the right (taken outside the crematorium at Manila Memorial with Ricky's son Rocky where Ricky was then being cremated) I find myself thinking, "if only Ricky could see us now." But then who is to say he wasn't watching us at the time? And smiling with us while we reminisced about all the times we spent together on VA and NWA activities. I bet he was chuckling at the anecdotes about the "lap dance of death" from his "victims".

Yes, death is a sad event, and yet we choose not to wallow in our friend's death but rather would celebrate the life he has lived. Ricky has touched so many lives and has been a positive influence to so many people that it seems impossible to believe he won't be there to joke around with. Even talking about him in the past tense seems wrong.

Ricky, someday, we will all join you up there, and when we do, we will party geek-style --- with a convention to top all conventions!

---

This may seem inappropriate but Ricky was a big fan of Monty Python so I would like to share some lines from Monty Python and the Holy Grail which I found highly amusing.

Dingo: You must spank her well, and after you are done with her, you may deal with her as you like... and then... spank me.
All: And me. And me too. And me.
Dingo: Yes. Yes, you must give us all a good spanking.

Dingo: And after the spanking, the oral sex.
Galahad: Well, I could stay a bit longer...

Death and illness ... two things that people have difficulty accepting and dealing with. I guess it is always harder for the people that are left behind.

I was shocked when I received the news yesterday afternoon that Ricky (3rd from the right) suffered a stroke and was rushed to Medical City's ER. I couldn't believe it. I had to read the message over and over until finally I had to admit to myself that it couldn't be a hoax ... not from Rej.

I made my way to Medical City last night with Jon of VA to visit him at the hospital. It was after visiting hours so all I was able to do was offer my support to Reitch (his gf), Ricky's family, and pray with the other NWA people who were there to lend their support to his family.

This evening, in the middle of TK class, Rej texted me and told me that Ricky was transferred to a private room so that we could say our goodbyes. Even after reading that it still didn't occur to me that Ricky had already left us. I guess I was in denial still. I was thinking, maybe he is in a coma and accepting visitors.

It's a hoax, right? Ricky is going to be okay, right? He is just sleeping and in recovery, right? ... Enough denial. I have to accept ... a good friend has passed away.

I can't imagine a VA event without Ricky in it. I can't imagine a con without Ricky in it. Whenever I watch Monty Python, Ricky is the first person that comes to mind. Ricky was in his 40s. He will be greatly missed. I will remember him with great fondness and will cherish all the times we spent together working on stuff for VA.

We love you, Ricky.

It's been years since my sisters and I had a group studio shot taken. Mostly because our schedules wouldn't mesh and and we all live in different houses now that we are all married (or involved).

I think the last photo we took was about 14 years ago when all of us weighed less than 110 lbs. The routine would normally be ... we would go to David's Salon to have our hair cut (plus shampoo and blowdry) then we proceed to the studio to have our photos taken. Yesterday, on a whim, we had a group photo and ... despite the additional pounds ... I think we still look great! hehehe

I have many friends from the different circles I move in but none are closer to me than my sisters. We not only enjoy each other's company, we actually SEEK each other out all the time. Our favorite place to hang out ... AT HOME (in Kamuning). We are comfortable, we don't spend much, and we have a lot of stuff we could do.

From the time we were small we have always been close. We are sorta like the three musketeers in that we truly believe in the phrase "all for one, one for all". Anyone messes with either of my sisters, they have to deal with ME. Growing up a boy or two has felt the impact of my fist when they would tease my sisters to the point of tears. Oh, well. Boys will be boys ... but big sister will also ALWAYS be big sister, so BEWARE! hehehe.

Everyone, I'd like you to meet my best friends in the whole world.



May you be as close to your siblings as I am to mine.

Allan and Jenny's reception went well enough and lots of interesting things happened there. I can talk about all of that but personally, I think I would like to focus on the food, if I may. At a later date I may write about all the other stuff (or maybe Gigi will write about them instead.)

Pao, Gigi, and I went to the reception of Allan and Jenny's wedding. Sharing the table with us were some of Allan's friends from UP. Seated on my left (but not in the photo since he wasn't there yet was Paolo, who I met via Zsazsa Zaturnnah, Ze Muzikal and in subsequent chats thereafter. Carlo arrived a bit later but still arrived before the food did.

Allan told us that the reception was to start at 6:30pm so, time keepers that we (Gigi and I) are, we arrived at Citybest (on T. Morato) on the dot. There weren't that many people there yet but we figured that maybe they were coming from the church. The reception finally officially started at around 8:00pm with the assembly and introduction of the wedding entourage and the descent of the newly wedded couple down the curving staircase. Allan and Jenny make a lovely couple and they did look so happy.

The food: We had:

• assorted cold cuts - white chicken, lengua, pork asado, jellyfish, century egg
• peking duck with kropek
  
• chili shrimp
• seafood rolls
• sharksfin and crab soup
  
• steamed lapu-lapu
• duck (don't know what it is called. Tasted kinda like adobo )
• crab in garlic and pepper sauce
• pancit canton
  
• assorted fruits (pineapple, mango, watermelon, melon)
  
• assorted softdrinks in cans and bottled water

I blush to admit that by the time the food arrived I was so ravenous that I pounced on the food. I don't think I really tasted anything for at least 5 minutes. I was so desperate for nourishment. After that, though, I began to fully appreciate the meal (especially the Peking duck!)

Suffice it to say, the food was pretty good. If at all, the only thing we thought was missing was rice. But we realized that the pancit must've substituted for that. Good meal, though. I was definitely stuffed.

Congratulations, Allan and Jenny, and thank you once again for inviting me (us).

I have known Noel Zarate since 1987, when we were both still in high school (he attended Lourdes School of Mandaluyong while I attended Stella Maris College --- both are private and exclusive schools). Noel was this gangly, bushy eyebrowed young man who was boisterous and funny and fun to be around.

He was exposed to showbiz at a young age because of his father Ernie Zarate (actor). When we met I knew him as a drummer for a high school rock band.

We spent a lot of time back then just hanging out and I got to know his dreams:

• Noel wanted to be a famous musician. At first it was as a drummer but he also had a knack for composition and he wanted to excel in that, too.
• Noel wanted to be a commentator for the PBA. He would often joke around and imitate the radio and tv game commentators he hears.

Since then he has made a name for himself in the music industry as: a drummer, keyboardist, composer, lyricist, musical arranger.

And believe it or not, he DID make it as a sports commentator! First with the PABL, then later with the PBA, etc.

Rumor has it, though, that Noel's labors have finally borne fruit --- he is now a high-powered exec for Solar Sports Entertainment. Congratulations, Noel! Not everyone gets to live their dream.

Maybe because not everyone wants it as much as you wanted yours. Or they did not have the talent needed to really pursue the dream.

I envy your success ... but more than that, I rejoice for it!

Start:	Nov 12, '05 4:00p
Location:	St. Francis Church

Wedding at St. Francis church
Reception at Wack-Wack Country Club

This Radio Idol (2004) is one awesome DJ. She is a good friend and a self-proclaimed workaholic. :) She is a Fitness Instructor and hosts various events, and now ... she is a radio DJ as well. And a pretty awesome one at that!

When she first joined Radio Idol we kept telling her that she was a shoe in and a natural but she wouldn't believe us. And look/listen at/to her now! She is awesome!

She is also living proof that radio jocks CAN look good as well as sound good. :)

She goes on the air around lunchtime everyday at Monster Radio RX 93.1FM.

Start:	Apr 10, '05 3:00p
Location:	Quezon City

After many years of searching for "THE ONE", Doc Hen finally found his match in a Stellan named Carol. We are so happy for them and wish them all the best!