I have loved sports ever since I was still a scruffy kid at age 6.  I've loved the stimulating enigma that springs from it.  But as I've continued to age, my fondness for sports, I believe, is dwindling into downward spiral.  As you probably know it, my eyes had unusually elongated which has made me half-blind for roughly a decade now and so I had no other choice but to quit playing rough games like basketball.  Perhaps basketball is the only game which I personally believe I could have been very good at had I continued playing it despite my lack of height.  My eye doctor diagnosed my eyes and found out that I've got PVD.  Then he said arguably the most heartbreaking phrase I've ever heard in my entire life (next to the phrase said to me when I was rejected hehe), "Do you play any sport?  I advise you to quit playing it from now on if you don't want your retina to be detached!"  And I was shattered.  But as I've actually meant, my love for it didn't totally diminish as I still watch basketball, boxing, billiards, and even badminton from time to time.  It's been a lesser degree, I know, that's why I've called it a 'dwindle' into downward spiral hehe.  I used to play those games (except for boxing, of course hehe but when I was still a kid, I did challenge other kids to box with me haha) but now, I just have to watch professionals do their thing.  At a very young age of 6, I still can recall that I was good at siyato, a local old game involving two sticks.  When I took up men's softball for my PE in college while I was still wearing contacts, I also remember very vividly that I could bat the softball pretty strong despite the fat and muscular arm of the pitcher.  But those were the good old days hehe.  My reaction time is good enough to hit you with a jumpshot in basketball without getting blocked (no matter how tall you are hehe).  And everytime I disrespect a defender with my Jordan-like jumpshot, I would never fail to remind him of his height hehe (that's what you call trash talk baby hehe).  I could even go toe-to-toe in basketball with the workhorses from the squatter's area.  My playmates even had this courage to gamble with the squatters as long as they (my playmates) had me as their teammate.  But most of the time, we lost to the squatters so my playmates were charged (oh no don't ever include me, you were the ones who gambled but you could blame me for being rusty at shooting and not penetrating my ass into the basket that time haha).  Oh that particular time when I gracefully drove my way into the basket near the baseline for what would have been an easy lay-up but I was badly blocked haha.  I hadn't realized back then that those squatters could actually jump higher than me and with perfect timing.  I mean, come on, they were just barely standing 5-feet tall.  I'm taller by 5 inches, so how could I know hehe?  I just couldn't handle their tenacity in the court and so I just settled for long jumpshots but I was rusty that day hehe.  So in short, we lost to them haha.  The kids in my neighborhood (but they are no longer kids) were even calling me "idol" haha.  Ahh good times hehe.  And I remember during one Valentines day way back in Elementary when we had some sort of a Valentines program in school, a classmate of mine named Herby gave me a relatively expensive Michael Jordan basketball jersey and I was dumbfounded and so I asked him, "Why do you have to give such expensive gift to me?"  And he replied, "Because someone told me you're good at playing basketball."  And then I was like, "Ouch, that is so sweet of you haha."  Again, those were the good old days and I'm again being egotistical hehe.  Among my present acquaintances, no one really knows that I used to play basketball far decently.   I mean, with my dorky appearance?  Come on hehe!

Yesterday was the end of the mentally-exhausting first 'preboards' and immediately after it, my friends and I went to a certain carinderia near CPAR to buy something to munch in an end to watch our very own UST play against the most defensive squad of Ateneo.  Unfortunately, UST lost.  Honestly, I went home a little upset both with the lost of UST to Ateneo and of course, my performance in the preboard exams...

The upcoming CPA Board Exams is a totally different kind of sport that I need to take seriously.  It's a pure mental game, a battle royale as I always put it.  Losing has always been a part of the game.  Therefore, it's never been a surprising "trend" in the CPA Board Exams that 75 percent usually don't make it, making it really the toughest board exams in the country today.  It's like a freakin' bar exams and the CPA Board is not EVEN an essay type of test, it's multiple choice!  And don't even tell me that this 75 percent didn't work hard to reach for their dream.  Sometimes, hard work is not enough.  Believe me, I did try yet I still failed.  The UST Growling Tigers is a team mostly composed of tall, lean, and athletic players.  But do they still have the necessary skill to keep pace with the heated competition?  If you ask me, my answer is a very optimistic YES.  They are definitely workhorses or hard workers as seen through their aggressiveness and hustle in the court.  Yet sometimes, it's not only a person's hard work that is deemed inadequate but also his skills only if clouded with doubts and indolence.  I mean, your goals have always been there waiting at the top taunting you abundantly for you to get them.  But there are just myriad of factors why, in the first round of eliminations, UST got beaten by 4 teams out of 7.  One glaring factor that I've seen why they usually lost games is their end-game composure.  They just can't execute their offense pretty well especially in the dying minutes of the final quarter.  It seems like they're losing their calmness and disintegrating in the court and this is actually the reason why they tend to turn the ball over.  It is therefore the end game that matters most.  The first round of eliminations is a mere period of adjustment, a proverbial gauge.  Just like in boxing, the first round is an essential round for the boxers to basically measure each other up.  A boxer has to taste the punch of his opponent especially in the first round so that he could adjust his defense appropriately, to drop his shoulders, for instance, if his opponent is a terrific puncher in the body.  The first round does have bearing but this is not actually the thing that matters most.  Boxing has 12 rounds yet it is the 12th round that marks a lasting impression on the judges' mind.  A basketball team may lead in points substantially in the first half but once they lost their composure in the end game, this is where they would get more chances to be blown away in the end.  Just like my first preboards 2 days back.  Definitely, those tests I took had bearing but they don't matter the most.  Yet without them, I could have never known that I'm still sluggish even at this very point.  So from here, I'd try to recoup.  The end game is yet to come for me so I have to work effectively to be poised.  So beloved few readers of this blog, I have to declare this hehe: I'm finally on a long HIATUS.  Sorry for my long absence and I hope this entry has successfully filled the long gap hehe.