Watch U Want

I have a confession to make. I have not worn a wristwatch for close to 10 years now. I used to wear watches. But for some reason or the other, I just stopped wearing them. I tried to think about the reason why I did this. And I really couldn't come up with anything specific .

I think it was because as cellphones kept evolving, they eventually managed to displace the functions of the watch which was essentially to tell me the time and the date. And since we carry our cellphones every single second anyway. There was no compelling reason to keep on wearing watches except as a fashion accessory.

I also went on kind of a minimalist phase where I shunned anything not really essential in what I wore. I used to wear a necklace and a bracelet. But got rid of them the same time as I stopped wearing watches. I just didn't feel comfortable anymore with things dangling or attached to my body.

My last watch was a Tudor Submarine Something watch. It was actually quite expensive with a retail price close to 100k if I am not mistaken. When I decided to forgo watches, I gave it to my father in law as a gift. When my father in law passed away a couple of years ago, it was returned to me and I eventually sold it to a friend for around 40K. I realized eventually that this selling price was actually a bargain, as another friend who was into watches told me that the model that I had could have fetched a higher price even though it was second hand because it was considered a classic, blah blah blah.

Anyway, I never really felt that I got the raw end of the deal as the watch was quite old and wasn't in good shape with dings and scratches everywhere. So I was quite happy with the amount that I got considering that I had no use for it anyway.

Fast forward to today. And guess what? I am again wearing a watch. A few days ago, I just decided at the spur of the moment that I wanted to wear watches again. I have no idea where the urge came from. I don't know how it came about. I just woke up one day and thought to myself that I wanted to wear a watch.

And so after a little bit of looking around, I bought one. Are you curious to know what watch I got ? It's not a Rolex. It's not an Omega or a Breitling. It's not even a Tag or a Technomarine. My wife was shocked to see me wearing a Casio G-Shock. (pun on words deliberate).

It is the essential everyday watch. It was tough. It was water resistant to 200 meters. It runs on solar energy. It had different date formats, world time, alarm, stopwatch and a bunch of other features that I can use when I travel. I can drop it from a building or bang it against a wall. I can do all these things and it would keep on working. I can even tell the ambient temperature if I wanted to.

It is the ultimate anti-rolex. It was designed to work and last forever but it is relatively cheap. As I grow older, I realized that I don't really care about expensive brands anymore. It isn't even about saving money. I could have easily purchased a much more expensive watch. But it just didn't feel right.

In some ways, it is like a big fat middle finger to all the people who look at your watch and judge you for how expensive it is. The ultimate fuck you to the establishment. It was perfect. Well, perfectly geeky maybe. Heheh...

I can just imagine the jaws of my officemates dropping and their eyebrows raised when they see me wearing this watch. With their rolexes and omegas tucked neatly in their sleeves and then they'll see this big black chunky thing on my wrist. Classic.

Heard it Through the Grapevine

1. Set vs Trips. Not the same. Set is when you have a pair and there is a similar card on the board. Trips is one in your hand and two in the board.

2. Slowplay vs Slowroll. Slowplay is when you have the nuts or close to the nuts and you play passively to induce calls or bets from your opponent. Slowroll is when you act like a moron and pretend you lost the hand even though you have the better hand.

3. I'll call even though I know I'm behind or I'll call even though I know you have the better hand. DUH ..... this is like totally illogical but you hear it all the time from dumb opponents. If you know you're behind, why would you call ? It's primarily a defense mechanism that one makes so as not to look stupid in front of other players. It's like he's saying that all the signs say that you're ahead. But I can't help my stupidity so let me just qualify my call by saying the term to minimize the damage to my ego just in case.

4. Paying tuition. I think this is probably only used in the Philippines. Players use the term loosely to describe the amount that they lost when they play poker. It is like saying that losing is part of the process of learning poker and it is necessary for you to pay a certain amount to learn poker which is actually not true. It is another human defense mechanism to massage one's ego from bad decisions. Personally, I find the term totally illogical. I think it stems from the fact that you pay tuition to learn in schools. But in poker, you gain experience and knowledge from both winning hands and losing hands. So when you win, do you also pay tuition? But you get money when you win. So are you refunding your tuition ?

There are tons of other examples, but these are the ones that I can think of right now. Sorry, I know I'm probably inadvertently bashing other people. But I can't help it. It's like an itch that I can't scratch when I hear people say these things.

Much to everyone's surprise ...

No matter how much negative comments and bashing they got from the media and those last minute flash card snafus. In all fairness, one has to admit that the Comelec did a good job in the country's first automated election. Even with long lines and isolated failures, the PCOS machines did their job and for the first time in the country's history, we are enjoying credible results a day after the election.

From my observation, solving the long queues for the next election should be quite simple. They just need to add more machines and increase the number of voting precints. The process was actually already ok, there was just too many voters for the number of machines allocated.

My own personal experience was pretty positive. I was up in Clark with the family for the long weekend. So I arrived in Manila at around 4PM already and I immediately went to cast my vote in my old high school. And there was absolutely no line. I sauntered up to the desk, got my ballot, shaded my choices, placed it in the PCOS machine, and got my finger inked. I was done in about 15 minutes. My brother went in the morning and he said that he waited 2 hours in line.

So if you think about it, it was just a matter of too many people wanting to vote in the morning, at least in my area.

If you care any iota about the Philippines and its economy, then we can all heave a sigh of relief. Who wins is actually much less important than the fact that we had a fairly successful credible automated election. The worst case scenario of an election failure would have been a big blow to our country's already reeling state .

The successful staging of the election should now allow our country to move on and focus on the bigger problems. One side comment. You really cannot underestimate the charisma of Erap. Even with all the things that he did last time. Filipinos are still voting for him. Everyone thought it was going to be an Aquino-Villar battle, but he is a surprisingly strong 2nd place with Villar a far third. I don't think he's going to win. But his numbers are amazing considering all past events. Hindi mo tuloy alam kung he's really that popular and charismatic or that our masa is really that stupid. No offense. But seriously, that's the only conclusion you can make.

Still Got the Mojo

Over the labor day weekend, I had some free time. So I decided to play in some online tournaments.

First try, played a super turbo satellite for the $5k guaranteed bounty in Cake. Top 4 gets a ticket. Played well, finished 3rd in chips, got the ticket. Proceeded to then play the bounty tourney. Busted out somewhere in the middle. My pocket pair (88) push was beaten by an A2 dumbass call by chip leader in our table. Ace flops and sayonara for me.

Second Try, played in a $12+1 and $24+2 90 man Turbo Knockout Tourney simultaneously in Full Tilt. Made the final table in both tourneys. After the smoke cleared, I finished 4th in the first one and 2nd in the other.

3rd Try. $2.5K Guaranteed Rebuy in Cake. Joined right before the rebuy period ended. Just playing tight as a lot of jokers play these rebuys. I get AK in early position with about half of the players eliminated. Had about 12 BBs left but blinds and antes was a fifth of my stack. So easy push. A guy with roughly about the same stack tanks but proceeds to call and shows AQ.

If you've been playing poker a long time. You will come to realize that there is always this one time in a tourney where the situation makes or breaks you. You know that if you double up then you can make the final table for a good payday. If you lose, then a good chance wasted. Sometimes its hard to recognize when this critical point happens. But in this case, I knew that this was it. I was playing well and was confident in my decisions. With a good enough stack, I knew I could easily make it to the final table. AK vs AQ. Dominated hand. What more could you ask for ?

Alas, the poker gods again decided to fuck me over as the Q came out on the turn. Bugger!!

Anyways, it was a good run after a long period of inactivity. All my eliminations were 3 outer bad beats and I netted close to $500 over the weekend. So quite satisfied and ended up thinking that I still got the cojones to play and beat this game.

Sex in Video Games

I know it may be an old topic, but I never realized just how far sex in mainstream video games have evolved until I got to play a game called Dragon Age Origins in my PC recently. I haven't been playing PC games that much for the past few years, but I read a review of the game and a friend also heartily recommended it, so I decided to try it out.

For you PC gamer addicts, I'm sure you're familiar with the game. For everybody else, its basically a role playing game where you assume the role of like a warrior, mage or rogue and battle evil beings.

So I played the first few nights and before long I was hooked. It was the same old dungeons and dragons stuff that I used to play back in the days. So nothing new there except for the really good graphics. But the main difference was that there was a lot of interaction with the characters in the game. Such that you can actually get a character to fall in love with your character and then they have video sex.

The first time this happened, I was shocked. What the heck! I mean it was quite funny and the woman character was in bra and panties. But there was no mistaking the scenes that were being portrayed. Man on top, woman on top. The shock factor was not because of any moral indignation on my part, but more because it was totally unexpected in a mainstream RPG.

So now, you're wondering. Can you do it with another character ? So I buttered up one of the other female characters to make her fall in love. And waddya know, she also agrees to have sex. And then the 2 computer characters you had sex with are now fighting because your character wooed both of them and they are asking you to choose between them.

The dialogues were hysterically funny and as a self confessed morally depraved human being. I have to admit it made the game much more compelling. I am certainly not going into the issue of the morality of portraying sex in video games that can be accessed by kids. I mean, half of the movies that are being shown now have sex scenes in one way or another and they are certainly much more graphic and revealing. But my curiosity was piqued so I surfed the net and read some of the comments made on the game and I find out that you can actually do sexy time between same sex characters in the right circumstance. Yep! So gay sex and lesbian sex is also included. So as not to alienate certain portions of society. Heheh.

I'm guessing its just a normal evolution. As video game graphics get more realistic, then I'm guessing the designers have to make the scenarios more realistic also. I am sure that the addition of sex no matter how awkwardly handled has made the games sell better as the people who play these kinds of games probably get a big kick out of fulfilling their fantasies in whatever form they can get it.

Now if I can just find a hack to remove the bra and panty ........... ;)

UPDATE 05/04/10
Attached sample pic from the net just so you have an idea what I am talking about

Hoping for Thunder

We're right smack in the middle of the first round of the NBA playoffs and everything appears to be going as expected except for two matches. The Mavs and the Spurs where the Spurs are currently beating the tar out of the Mavs and leading the series 3-1. I can't really say this is unexpected as the Spurs are a tried and tested playoff team with the trio of Duncan, Parker and Ginobli anchoring them. Although they are getting old, the emergence of George Hill and the addition of Jefferson has been enough to keep the team in the playoff race with an outside chance of getting to the finals.

Can't say the same for the Mavs who have a reputation of being soft and playoff chokers. Nowitzki got some support this year with the addition of Marion and Butler. But they just can't seem to get over the hump. Even though they finished 2nd in the regular season, they are in danger of getting eliminated again. I think Mark Cuban is scratching his head trying to figure out what the heck is wrong with this team. He has poured millions of dollars into getting complementary players to no avail. My opinion is that it lies directly with your star player. Some players can kick it up a notch during playoffs and carry their team (Lebron, Kobe). Nowitzki cannot seem to do it.

The other more interesting match-up is between the Lakers and Thunder. The Thunder behind a run and gun hustling game are making the Lakers look old and have currently tied the series at 2-2. Everyone predicted this to be a sweep and although the Lakers are probably still going to win this one. I am secretly hoping for the Thunder upset. Durant has shown his huge potential this season and together with Westbrook, Green, Harden and Ibaka are giving Phil Jackson and Kobe all that they can handle. If they can just continue this energy thru the last 3 games, then they have a good chance of stealing this one in 7 games. Kobe appears to be somewhat bothered by his injuries and the Laker point guards Fisher and Farmar cannot guard the speedy Westbrook. Durant has actually been off his game (guarded by Artest) and the Thunder can still win comfortably. So if he figures this out and gets his groove, the Lakers might find themselves eliminated in the first round.

I know there are a lot of Laker fans here in the Philippines especially Kobe fans. I for one have always rooted for the Lakers since the Magic Johnson days. But you can't help rooting for the young Thunder team who are the underdogs but have shown great resiliency. If they steal this one, I don't think David Stern would be that disappointed. Even though there won't be a Lakers-Celtics or Lakers-Cavs possibility. The idea of a young team with only 20+ wins last season possibly taking it all the way is also a good story line and will be milked for what its worth. Durant vs Lebron doesn't sound so bad. Heheh.

Still No Poker but Turning Japanese

As the title suggests, poker is still taking a back seat to my everyday life. Not really playing that much. Just came back from a trip to Osaka Japan though. And it was one of the coolest countries I've visited. People are so polite, it is relatively clean and the food is awesome. I always had the impression that the food is expensive in Japan, but the opposite is true. There are lots of small places that you can go to where the price is reasonable and the food is delicious. Curry, Ramen, Udon, Huge Beef Bowls, Tempura. YUM.

Places to visit are of course Universal Studios, the Kaiyukan Aquarium, Den Den Town for electronics and Osaka Castle. Just make sure to cop one of those cheap flights from Cebu Pacific and the total cost for the trip is surprisingly only slightly higher than a Hongkong visit and you get to experience a totally different and unique culture. Hongkong is already too common as everybody has been there including their maids.

The only negative during a March visit to Japan is the weather. The average was around 6 to 8 degrees and for us warm blooded filipinos. Way too cold.

Notables from the trip include (1) seeing so many pretty Japanese ladies in their ubershort skirts. My wife had to turn my head back a couple of times or else I would bump into something. Heheh. (2) Getting a shirt from Uniqlo with a Mazinger Z design. OK. For those who are not familiar. UNIQLO is a clothing store that originated from Japan which now has many branches in Asia including China, Singapore and Hongkong. It is like the GAP of Asia. It offers fashionable and good quality clothes for men and women at very reasonable prices. Be sure to visit their stores whenever you see them around Asia. Mazinger Z is a cartoon about a robot. Together with Voltes 5, it was one of the mainstay programs that I watched during my childhood. Seeing a shirt with Mazinger Z on it. My geeky side couldn't resist. (3) Heated toilet seats with automatic bidets and dryers. This may sound totally weird and out of this world. But after having experienced this in cold weather. I have become a convert. I want one here in the Philippines if I can get one. Heheh. (4) Eat all you can sushi in a rotating sushi conveyor. My cousin and I finished 45 plates between the 2 of us. BURP (5) 100 Yen Stores like Daiso. I know we already have them here. But the Japanese stores have tons more stuff in them. I got a set of earphones for 100 yen. Also a nice pair of boxer shorts. Of course you can't expect high quality but still that's just 50 pesos. (6) Japanese chocolates. Lots of different kinds to choose from. From high quality fresh chocolates to Kit Kat Green Tea Flavor.

Some people might have a problem with the language as almost all Japanese people cannot speak English. Even the hotel staff have a hard time communicating. But the people are so helpful and polite that it is still easy to get around. Just be ready to make silly hand gestures and lots of finger pointing and bowing. Their subways and trains are very well organized with accurate schedules. If they say it arrives at 9, then it arrives at 9. I don't think I took a train or bus that was late during my whole stay there. Just get one of their subway maps and you should be able to roam around at your leisure.

What else can I say ? Great place for a vacation. I am definitely going back when I get the chance.