End of the Phoenix Era

I'm a Phoenix suns fan since they brought back Steve Nash and orchestrate the fast-paced "Seven Seconds or Less" mentality. Last year, they are only two games away from a Finals appearance, if not for the stupid suspensions on Stoudemire & Diaw for Game 5.

But with their recent first round ouster, no wonder there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on. Coach Mike D’Antoni arguing on GM Steve Kerr regarding putting premium on defense? Maybe, it’s the front office/ownership wrong dealings? Let me take a look where the franchise went since 2004. From the draft gamble, as in you make your gambles on whose rookie to pick.


2004 NBA draft

Phoenix Suns trade #7 pick (Luol Deng) to the Chicago Bulls for a future first round pick. Phoenix took the risk that Chicago would get a high pick in 2005…

Spending #1: Signed Quentin Richardson. (signed Richardson instead of drafting Deng? If only someone could’ve told them the future)

2005 NBA draft

…they didn’t, it turned out to be #21 pick Nate Robinson, so the Suns ended up trading Robinson to the Knicks with Quentin Richardson for Kurt Thomas.

They traded away Joe Johnson to Atlanta in exchange for Boris Diaw and two future first-round draft picks.

2005-06: Stoudemire played only three games. Just when you thought everything was lost, Diaw played well and Phoenix remained a powerhouse.

2006 NBA Draft. Where everything changed.

One of the picks acquired from Atlanta. turned out to be #21 pick Rajon Rondo.
For financial reasons they traded the pick to Boston along with Brian Grant for future first round pick…

Spending #2: Signed Marcus Banks to a five-year, $24 million deal to back up Nash. Marcus Banks? WTF!! He can’t shoot 3s, in the first place. Can’t they assess a talent that will fit the system? Why not let Rondo develop into a background PG. Look at him now. Celtics have confidence in him at starting PG.

2007 NBA Draft

the second of the Atlanta picks, only to be spoiled by the lottery. (it was a protected top-3 pick)

Pick acquired from Boston turned out to be #24 Rudy Fernández.

Traded Kurt Thomas to Seattle along with two first-round picks, (Thomas eventually traded to the archrival Spurs, where he helped beat the Suns in the '08 playoffs)

Traded Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks for Shaquille O’Neal. ‘nuff said, critics everywhere.


Back in 2005, the Spurs had the right nucleus (Duncan, Ginobili and Parker) and so did the Suns (Nash, Stoudemire, Marion and Johnson), but only the Spurs kept it intact. Looking at those moves from 2004 to 2007, you'd have to call the Seven Seconds of Less Era one of the memorably squandered opportunities in recent sports history. They could have paid the luxury tax and tapped all other sources of income, and maybe brought home the trophy.

Now heading to the 2008 Draft, they own the second of the Atlanta picks which is at #14. I just hope the Suns don’t screw their future and come back rejuvenated for one last push.

Malubak. Ang dami nyan sa McArthur Hwy

This should get the drivers to slow down....

East versus West cultures

Do you agree? Do you disagree? Spread the word.
Blue = Western
Red = Asian

On Opinions:


On Anger:


On Contacts:


On the Way of Life:


On Handling Problems:


On Moods and Weather:


On the Boss:


On Punctuality:


Sa mga Pila:


Ang tingin nila sa Sarili:


Sundays on City Streets


On Parties:


On Restaurants:


Sagot sa Gutom:


Perception of Each other's Culture:


On what's Trendy:


The Child:


Role of the Elderly:


When Traveling:


Transportation, Then and Now:


Definition of Beauty:

How many colors can you name in FIVE minutes?

80

Six Crossing Bridge | Only in Dubai

its a stunner. I wanna go to Dubai !!!

Dubai still doesn't stop. After their massive infrastracture works: the 7-star hotel; and man-made islands, they are building world's longest arched bridge.

The project, the biggest ever single road project launched by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, also includes 12 kilometres of new roads and 22 intersections. And oh, it will also provide access to a new island in the creek, which the local developer plans to build an opera house on.

- It's one mile long and 670 feet tall.
- It will have 12 lanes for traffic.
- It will cost 34 BILLION Philippine pesos. (without corruption, of course!)
- The bridge will carry more than 2,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.
- A metro line will run across the middle.
- Construction begins in March, with a slated completion date of 2012.

More information here.

The origin of your favorite video game friends

Ever wondered why Mario is, well… Mario? Just like you and I have a story of how we came into existence, so do our two-dimensional video game favorites. Here’s a tribute to some of our faithful flat friends with whom we all have logged many an un-moving hour.

Donkey Kong
Space Invaders came on the video game scene in 1978 and was an overnight hit. Such a hit, in fact, Japan suffered a nationwide coin shortage, resulting in the need to quadruple the amount of Yen in circulation. Nintendo, previously a playing card company, wanted their slice of the pie. They created a similar game called Radarscope, which bombed spectacularly. Nintendo had banked on Radarscope being a blockbuster and had already ordered and paid for an entire warehouse full of arcade gaming cabinets. The job of what to do with the surplus was given to programmer/designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto had originally been working on a Popeye-based game, but had to drop the project when he was unable to obtain the rights. Wanting to stick to his original Popeye theme of “beauty and the beast”, he created a disgruntled, gigantic gorilla that had escaped from his annoying, tiny owner. For the “beauty” aspect, the gorilla kidnapped his owner’s girlfriend out of retribution for years of captivity. So that leaves us with the name. Kong obviously makes sense, but what about the first part? Miyamoto wanted to demonstrate the beast’s stubbornness – what better name than Donkey?

Mario
Donkey Kong was also the birthplace of another staple video game character – although he was originally known as Jumpman.

Donkey Kong’s original owner was none other than the Mario that you and I have come to love. Once DK had taken off (selling 65,000 units to Asteroid’s 70,000), all promotional materials referred to his owner simply as Mario. I guess Jumpman didn’t have the same ring to it.

Believing that people would identify better with a blue collar hero, Miyamoto made Mario a carpenter in the first video game; he later switched professions, becoming a plumber. The name came from the landlord at Nintendo’s Headquarters in NYC, Mario Segali. Mario’s trademark mustache is the result of low pixel resolution: a mustache looked a lot better than any mouth they could come up with. Low pixel resolution is also the reason Mario’s has a hat instead of hair.

Sonic
Sega went on a quest for a recognizable Mario-esque character to compete with Nintendo. But they hit a few bumps in the road before creating the tough guy we know today as Sonic.

Before hitting the jackpot with Sonic in 1991, Sega’s research and development team came up with many an odd character. Some of his predecessors include an Armadillo, a Theodore Roosevelt character (in pajamas), a rabbit, and a dog. Finally, Naoto Oshima came up with the fun-loving, fast-paced face of Sega, Sonic the Hedgehog. His original name was Mr. Needlemouse. That was changed for obvious reasons. Although no blue hedgehogs exist in nature, that color matched Sega’s sleek logo. Sonic rolled off to immediate success. He was so popular, he even has his own protein named after him. In 1993, a scientist discovered a protein that caused spiny backs in fruit flies. Because of the resemblance – and his love for Sonic – the scientist named it the “Sonic the Hedgehog protein.” To this day, Mario still does not have his own kind of protein.

Pac-Man
We all have a special place in our hearts for our insatiable, round, yellow friend, but no one ever asks to hear his story. The best-selling arcade game of all time came on the scene in 1980 and has been devouring our quarters ever since.

Japanese game designer Toru Iwatani was 26 when he invented the timeless masterpiece. In the original Japanese release, our star was called “Puckman” which was just a wee bit too close to a certain English swear word for the developers’ liking. Thus, “Pac-Man” emerged. His name is derived from the Japanese slang term ‘paku paku,’ which describes the motion of the mouth opening and closing while eating, and in the literal English translation means “to eat.” It was rumored that Pac-Man’s shape was created over pizza. Iwatani took one slice from a full pie, the legend goes, and presto! They had their character. But in a 1986 interview, Iwatani admitted that was only half the story, and Pac-Man’s design was also influenced by the shape of the Japanese character kuchi, which means mouth. Wanting to appeal to a bigger audience than just young boys and teens, he added the maze aspect and the rest is history.

If you think you’re the biggest Pac-man fanatic, then you’ve probably never heard of Billy Mitchell. In July of 1999 die-hard Pac-Man fan Billy Mitchell attained the first-ever recorded perfect score of 3,333,360. After playing for six hours straight, he beat all of the 256 screens, ate every pellet, fruit and ghost, all using just one Pac-Man.