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Pacquiao knocks down Morales 3 times on their 3rd fight which ended in the 3rd round. Oh and three National Anthems were sung.

The weirdest thing yet: I see my brother on TV amongst the thousands of boxing fans at the UNLV arena where the fight was held. The camera focused on a section of the arena right before the fight started and there he was in a red beanie cap and a yellow Pinoy pride shirt. I called him immediately. He didn’t pick-up. Can’t blame him, the fight already started. He returns my call later and confirms that that was him whom I saw. He says everyone has been calling him. (Of course, I ask him next if it was okay for me to blog about it. heh.)

Someone at Wikipedia must be a big Middle-earth fan. Yesterday’s featured article was on J. R. R. Tolkien. Last October 5, The Lord of the Rings was the featured article.

There was news a month before all this that J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, Christopher Tolkien, just completed editing The Children of Hurin, an epic started by Tolkien in 1918 which he had later abandoned.

Justin Long may or may not be the “Mac” in Apple’s TV ads any more but in Japan, both the PC and the Mac actors have been replaced by these guys.

via macsimumnews

The Fremont A’s?

The Santa Clara 49ers?

Why are these Bay Area teams wanting to move down south? The San Jose Sharks will at least have some company now. The only thing I can think of right now, however, is how bad traffic will be down here where I live. The proposed A’s ballpark will be built on largely undeveloped land owned by Cisco in South Fremont. It will be beside a barely two-year old shopping center next to I-880.

I question the decision to build a stadium here though. To the west of this area is the City of Fremont’s garbage dump. A mile couple of miles south along 880 is the City of Milpitas’s garbage dump. It’s terrible driving down this area sometimes, especially on hot days. The stench can become unbearable, even with your windows rolled up. Let’s just hope they build a state-of-the-art covered stadium.

The 880 freeway is what I take to go to work in Santa Clara from Fremont. Traffic on 880 is pretty bad right now. But thankfully road work is currently being finished to widen the freeway from three lanes to four lanes. It will certainly ease the bottleneck we’re experiencing but by the time we find some relief, new traffic will be added from cars coming to and from the two new stadiums.

The 49ers are looking at building a new stadium near Great America in Santa Clara. Their practice field is presently adjacent to the amusement park. When I used to commute by train (with my folding bike in tow), I would bike past this field. Below are a couple of pictures of them in training that I took through narrow fence slats a couple of years ago.

But then again, maybe these teams moving down south will rekindle my enthusiasm for sports. I largely lost interest after I got married, quite the opposite of the usual expectation. It’s just one of those things I had to sacrifice in raising a young family. I was an enormous Warriors fan back in the day. That was when RUN TMC were huge. With Don Nelson back in the saddle as the Warriors coach, I wonder if this is another sign?

Update: Whoa, San Francisco’s not about to give up their team so easily. The City has employed the help of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (also former Mayor of SF) to open up talks with the Niners organization about staying.

Check this gem out: Nostalgia Manila. As you dear readers know, I like to wax nostalgic once in a while so discovering this site was an absolute delight for me. It covers Manila in the 1970s and 1980s, the time I grew up in the Philippines (I left for the US in the early ’80s). They encourage people to submit “photos, stories, news, quotes, music, etc.” from that era. Boy, do I have a few things to share. There are a few pieces of ephemera over here just waiting to be scanned.

Another site I recently discovered is SuperPasyal. It features photos of Manila from the streets. Just looking at them brings back memories of the heat, the pollution, the sights, the scents and the noise of the city. This is the Manila I would’ve wanted to see again, warts and all, during our trip to the Philippines had we not travelled with our three young children.

Of course, Rick’s site Project Manila offers equally interesting photos, albeit through more rose-colored lenses (’cept for the accident pictures. Glad your bro is doing well, Ricky).

On the homefront, the paintings of Philippine masters are being featured at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. Pioneers of Philippine Art: Luna, Amorsolo, Zóbel runs from October 20, 2006 through January 7, 2007. I found out about this exhibit early on from the sisters Maricar and Grace at Filipina Soul. Here’s the San Jose Mercury News’s coverage of the event.

Head on over to the newly redesigned thePinoy.net to catch the latest happs in the Philippines. The award-winning site is better than ever. Great job, Ernie!