8 Random Thoughts: The Chinese New Year-Super Bowl Edition

Have a prosperous New Year. | Credit: Wolf of Wall Street

Happy Chinese New Year, folks! Let us start this Chinese Lunar Calendar Year with a blast by discussing about sports and pop culture (as always). I know this is mostly about sports with the Super Bowl around the corner, but still. I have my “Wolf of Wall Street” review at the last part after all! (It took me two full years to do a movie review again and I am putting it as a subsection of a blog post. Shame on me.)

Random Thought # 1: Another year, another failure. The New England Patriots are eliminated in heartbreaking fashion in another playoff game. Any thoughts?

Yes, this hurts. | Credit: NESN

I know that I should not be whining because I just experienced a championship very recently. And it also came from a Boston team so the New England Patriots fans should not expect a lot of sympathy either. Regardless, it is always easier said than done: the loss stings especially that it came against Peyton Manning’s team. I know the Broncos are not La Salle, Giants, Jets or Yankees level to me, but rivalry is rivalry.

Halftime Break

The famous Hickory High Halftime Speech | Credit: Hoosiers

"I wanted a fresh start, okay? I'm entitled to that." -Betty
"There is no fresh start! Lives carry on." –Henry

From “Mad Men” Season 4 Episode 13 entitled “Tomorrowland”

Christmas Break 2013. Yes.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I finished my last conference call last Friday because I was about to experience some good break in the following days. (Technically, I am still working this week but at least it is not as intense as it was in the previous weeks.) Christmas break 2013 has arrived and I needed it more than ever.

Never Say Die

Credit: nfl.si.com

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

The New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos met last weekend for Sunday Night Football. The game featured Tom Brady and Peyton Manning battling it out for the 14th time as their teams’ respective quarterbacks. By then, Tom Brady' Patriots had a commanding 9-4 record over Peyton Manning-led teams. The Pats had the homecourt advantage but the Broncos were tagged as the favorites to win because of their plethora of offensive and defensive weapons. The Patriots were still fresh from a Monday night defeat the previous week against the Carolina Panthers. Furthermore, their two best defenders (Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo) were out for the season. The Broncos, on the other hand, had crazy momentum as they defeated the last unbeaten team in the league – the Kansas City Chiefs. Peyton even has longtime elite Patriot receiver Wes Welker on his side. The Broncos were favored by 2.5 points.

Fake Mailbag

And we got Bradying | Credit: washingtonpost.com

 We are midway at the end of January and things have been crazier than ever in sports and pop culture. The wildest of them all happened last week when news came out that Manti Te’o, college football star of Notre Dame, had a fake dead girlfriend. To put things into bigger perspective, Manti had one of the sweetest storylines last year. He delivered a very strong performance on the next game after both his grandmother and girlfriend died of leukemia. Movie-like story, isn’t it? Only problem was, his girlfriend never existed. The Twitter account was fake and the picture used in there belonged to a chick who did not even know who Manti Te’o was.

Fake Mailbag for the fake artist | Credit: ESPN

Insane, right? How the heck will someone have a relationship with a person he never met person-to-person? If Manti was indeed fooled, that says a lot about him. I know that technology has “advanced” the way we communicate with people in the present time, but seriously, you haven’t met the person you love? He even mentioned his dead girlfriend’s parents understood why he wouldn’t attend the funeral. Really? He was able to talk to fake parents? What is happening in this world?

That story was a total shame. Whether he got fooled or is trying to fool everyone, Manti Te’o has been receiving a lot of flak these days for this sick and twisted idea of having a fake dead girlfriend. Now, there are teowing pictures (which is posing as if you have a girlfriend right beside you) over the Internet now. Lies. Fake. Lies. Fake. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

And with that, comes the conception of this blog entry – a creative way of inserting my random thoughts about current stories and non-stories. Since we are talking about ‘fake’ anyway, it is just apt to have fake celebrities throw out mails to me.

The Reminder

Credit: Sports Illustrated

Job’s patience. Our Parish Priest discussed about Job’s patience in last Sunday’s Holy Mass. Job was known for having remarkable patience no matter how tough the times were. No matter how Satan dared Job to blame God for his drastic misfortunes, Job did not give way. He remained patient until the end. The priest told us that no matter how many times you get defeated during tough times, you stay strong. You stay patient.

I gasped. Is this a sign of things to come? Will the New England Patriots get beaten again by the New York Giants? In 2008, the unbeaten Patriots zoomed to the Super Bowl only to get upset by the Giants. It was one of the toughest losses in Boston history. Having a shot at a perfect season is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. In the history of NFL, only one squad finished perfect (Miami Dolphins). And, there were fewer games then. New England was on the cusp of NFL glory until a young, underrated quarterback named Eli Manning pulled off a miracle drive that was highly improbable because of all the fortunate turn of events for the G-Men. It led to several what-ifs for Boston fans. What if Tyree dropped that tough catch? What if the ball was intercepted in Eli’s final drive? It was a tough loss. What made it worse was it came against New York. For those who do not know, New York is Boston’s rival just as La Salle is Ateneo’s. New England already had three championships under quarterback Tom Brady and head coach Bill Belichick then. The duo spent the next few years trying to build a new Patriot dynasty.

Avoiding Negativity

NBA Lockout is over! | Credit: Getty Images

When you experience a major defect on a product, you normally get pissed about it or you try to avoid committing the same mistake of buying the same thing again. This gets worse if you find out that it was consistently bad from the experiences of your friends. However if you are currently stuck with that product (again – because you have no choice), all you can do is sigh and wish it would last longer than the last time.

In my experience, it would have to be iPod’s earphones. Make no mistake about it – iPod’s earphones sound well and look great. My biggest qualm about it is its durability. When I had my first set of those white earphones, I noticed its rubber wearing off after three months. By the fifth month, the earphones were totally useless. Thus, I became extra careful when I had my second set of earphones last July. I always put them in a relatively safer place after using. I was very glad that there was no trace of the rubber wearing off. I was thinking to myself, “Apple has finally fixed the earphone concern. Yay! But still, I hope this set can outlive my first set.”

8 Random Thoughts of a Very Satisfied Fan

Note: A lot of these are week-old news. Yup, it took me a week before I could publish this writeup. Thanks to my wisdom tooth (or lack thereof) for constantly making me ineffective these past few days.

One week ago, I was frustrated at the demise of my two sports teams. If your two teams had the worst collapses of the ‘more than century old’ Major League Baseball history, you are surely going to get pissed. I woke up as if I just had a break-up the previous day (total lie – I was still able to work and function as a normal being that day, but you get the idea… I was devastated). I barely slept and I woke up as if I had a horrible hangover even if I never drank a drop of alcohol the previous night. Last week seemed to be an awful week in sports for me. Atlanta and Boston collapsed and got eliminated; Smart Gilas squandered a great chance of reaching the Finals and lost in the 2nd runner-up battle; New England lost for the very first time in gazillion years to Buffalo with Brady throwing four picks. The only win from a team I rooted for was from this year’s Super Bowl champions, the Green Bay Packers.

It was a tough week until everything concluded with the Game 2 of the UAAP Finals. The surest bet of the year for me – the Ateneo Blue Eagles – completed their domination of the Far Eastern University Tamaraws. And just like that, I felt relieved and ecstatic. Ateneo now belongs in the four-peat club. History happened for my teams – two horrible outcomes and one amazing result. And from a fan who has been through a lot, I will take this overall outcome any time of the day.

I read Grantland’s list of ‘Most Depressed Fan Bases.’ Both Atlanta and Boston were on the recent list, but you know what, I should not belong on this list (heck, Boston should not even be as the Bruins recently won). I was unfortunate on what happened to Atlanta and Boston, but as Bill Simmons usually remark, “I have no right to feel horribly sad because my sports teams were winning championships the past few years.” The same can be said to Boston. The same applies to me.

This writeup is not meant for gloating purposes. I am just saying that I had an up and down year but for what it’s worth, I should be very happy because two of my teams won championships.

8 Random Thoughts on Sports: September 2011 Edition

The Lambeau Leap | Credit: NFL

The NBA lockout is getting worse by the day, but it does not mean that we cannot enjoy sports in mid September. Yes, we do not have the occasional fantasy NBA drafts. I am not expecting for one in the near future, but that is for Future Jeff to get frustrated about. Let us concentrate on the present time when sports is at a very high gear.

Random Thought #1: Any thoughts on the Ateneo Blue Eagles?

First off, I have to say my traditional reaction once Ateneo reaches the Finals…

We’re Baaaaaaaaaaccccckkkkk!!!

The Return of Random Thoughts Pt. 2

Link the the first part: PART 1

Tom Brady and Chad Ochocino. Go Patriots!

Random Thought #5: Which team is the best coming out of the NFL free agency?

Call me a homer, but I am picking the Green Bay Packers and the New England Patriots. I could not pick one over the other though. The defending champions may not have gotten star free agents but their team from last year is intact (which is important). In a lockout-rushed season, it is important to have an intact team because teams got less time to practice together. Getting

overshadowed by New England, Philadelphia and other teams that made strong moves in free agency adds fuel to the Packers’ fire. We should also note that Green Bay had several injured starters before the playoffs last year, thus they are even stronger this year as they return. Lastly, Green Bay drafted quality players in this year’s draft.