Goose's Spontaneous Blabs

“I cannot take this anymore
I'm saying everything I've said before
All these words they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Less I hear the less you'll say
But you'll find that out anyway
Just like before...

Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break

I find the answers aren't so clear
Wish I could find a way to disappear
All these thoughts they make no sense
I find bliss in ignorance
Nothing seems to go away
Over and over again
Just like before...

Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Break break break break break

shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up
shut up when I'm talking to you
shut up shut up shut up shut up
I’m about to break

Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
Everything you say to me
Takes me one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break
I need a little room to breathe
Cause I'm one step closer to the edge
And I'm about to break”

The semester has come to its end. This only takes me one step closer to the end. The end which I refer to is the end of my S.J.S.U. undergrad career. When this semester comes to its total end, I will only have eight more units to take for the next semester. Although the end of this semester brings me closer to the end, I still wish I could slow down time. I do not think that I am ready to go on. Look I am still in the gossiping world with the “gossiping guys”. Even though this semester has been a pain in the b*tt, many good has come out of it. People may not realize that even if you believe something may be boring, I would bet that they learned something from it. An example that I stumbled upon this semester is taking the Beginning Social Dance class at S.J.S.U.. I always thought that ballroom dancing was stupid and had no real point to it. Coming to the first class, I was very skeptical in taking this class; however, after a few time I started getting into it. I never really liked to dance in this style, but in the end I was totally into dancing. Yes, I know people are thinking this guy must be a “fruit” or something, but to be real honest “if a guy knows how to dance, then he knows how to hold a woman properly.” Yes, I know people are still thinking the same thing, who said I could change people’s minds.

Now the lyrics from Linkin Park’s One Step Closer because like I said earlier I am one step closer to graduating; however, that makes me one step closer to something I am not sure of, like the edge. At the edge you may fall right away or not, you just do not know. Once undergrad school is over, I am at the edge because I do not know what I am going to do right after. So as Linkin Park says “everything you say to me brings me one step closer to the edge”.

Lyrics Credit: http://www.linkin-park-lyrics.com/one-step-closer.htm

Quote Credit: Bud Ayers, Professor of Dance

Photo Credit: http://www.thisfabtrek.com/journey/africa/morocco/20050729-tan-tan/cliff-lr-4.jpg

Yes, Happy Birthday Mother Goose!

No, it is not Mother Goose, Mother Goose. You know it is Mother Goose, the mother of Goose. Yes, today is my mom's birthday. For her birthday, my brother, sister, and I came up with the best plan to surprise her. The plan was to surprise her. Duh! The plan begins with my sister's part. Her part was to fly up from San Diego. After doing her part, it was my turn. My part was to figure out if my mom was going to go to work on her birthday. After pestering my mom on yesterday, November 29, I told my sister that the plan way going to go through. The entire plan was to have my sister fly up from San Diego, then I would have to pick her up from the airport where I would drive her to my mom's workplace. Once we had gotten in the vicinity of the workplace, my sister would call her and ask if our mom had received the flowers that she had sent. After doing that I would get out of the car and go to my mom's office and ask if she got the flowers, where my sister would then come out from behind me and say "Hi mom, surprise".

Today, the plan did not go as planned, rather it was better than we expected. My sister's flight was delayed, but in the midst of this potential disaster, it turned out that it would help us. Knowing that my sister was suppose to arrive at 3:30P.M., I left the house at 12:00P.M.. After, that I received a call from her where she told me that her flight had been delayed. My dad then called me to ask where my brother and I were. My sister did not want to bring my dad into the plan, so I had to tell him that I was running errands for my mom. My dad then called me back a second time telling me that my aunt needed to go to her lawyers and needed to be picked up. I proceeded to my aunt's house, picked her up and dropped her off in the downtown area.

The time was around 4:15P.M already and my sister was just getting of the airplane. My sister then called me and told me that our mom kept calling her asking where the flowers were. After I picked up my sister; my brother, sister, girlfriend, and I went to the florists around the workplace of my mom. We bought her a bouquet of roses. We drove up as planned but did not call her. We walked into the building, through the hallways, and upon arriving at the front desk my mom is waiting there for her flowers. As we were walking in, she did not notice us until we got closer and told her happy birthday. She still did not see my sister until my sister handed her the roses. My mom's surprised reactions turned out to be "Oh, thank yo... Why are you here?" My mom started to cry because she never expected my sister to come up for her birthday.

My dad, who also did not know about the plan had to be surprised too. My mom and sister came up with the plan of leaving my sister in the car after we had gone home. My sister hid behind one of the seats because we have three rows of seats in our Sequoia. My mom, brother, girlfriend, and I sat in the car before my dad. When my dad came into the car, my sister stuck out her head and said "Hi dad, What's going on?" She was then greeted with "Where did you come from? What are you doing here?"

When I was young I played the game. Now that I am older I want to play in the game.

This past Monday I was sitting in the library studying for a midterm in Local Government class. After skimming and studying through the first four chapters of the ten that I had to read, I decided that a break was needed. On my break I logged onto the Yahoo! Website and started looking through the headline news. I start by going through the “Featured”, “Entertainment”, and “Sports” tabs first. When I do this I just look at the four headline news makers. After that I scroll down and look at the tabs at the bottom. The “In The News”, “World”, and “Local” tabs. This is usually what I do on a daily basis to stay current on what going on; however, this day was different.

On Monday I decided to look at the “Video” tab. The top headline maker was “Human Tetris”. This seemed very interesting because when I was younger, I loved to play the game “Tetris” on the Nintendo game system. Seeing the name “Tetris” it made me want to watch what this “Human Tetris” was all about. When I clicked on the link, I started to watch the video. The first few seconds were to show how to play, it looked interesting enough for me to want to watch it some more. When I was watching it, I could not stop laughing because the way the people looked when they were playing the game. (http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1366142&fr=&cache=1)

To be honest, I would love to fly over there just to go play that same game. To me it looks really fun even though I might look stupid playing it, I feel that it would be totally worth the trip just to go play that game. Yes, I know you must think it is a stupid idea to do that but from what I know is that you got to try to have fun sometime.

Photo Credit:
http://www.blockstats.org/libraries/tetris_files/NES_Tetris_Box_Front.jpg

Last semester, I was ready to take PolS 100w taught by Professor Edwards. When I arrived the morning of the first class meeting, I was really bummed because I did not think any of my friends were going to be in the class. When class began, I told myself “this is a required class that I need to have, just get it over with and move on to the next classes.” A few minutes later, two of my friends walk in. Professor Edwards began taking roll, as she did; my friends and I noticed that there was a large amount of students in the class. Among the three of us, two were already enrolled in the class. After Professor Edwards called roll, she asked if there were any graduating seniors in the class that were not called. Many hands moved into the air, professor looked and said, “Are there any students willing to give up their place in this class so I could accommodate these seniors?” Everyone in the class knew that no one would be willing to give up their place. My friends and I decided that there was no possibility for our other friend to get into the class, so we agreed that we would give up our places in the class and take PolS 100w in the Fall.

Because I agreed to give up my enrollment in the PolS 100w class, I needed another class. I could not decide which class I would take. There were so many classes to choose from; however, I figured that classes had already started most would be filled. As I was trying to determine which class I would be taking, one of the friends that was in the class told me that there was an opening in the class that he was taking. The decision was that I would take PolS 152B, Model United Nations, with Professor Montojo.

In the beginning, I was very skeptical about this class being that I had never heard of such a class and the fact that my friend was explaining what the professor expected from the students. As class went on I got more comfortable with the work load, but was still worried about the other part of the class. The other part of the class that I was worried about was the going to Burlingame and taking part of a simulation that other schools were going to participate in.

When it became that time in April when we would go to the Hyatt in Burlingame, we had a guest speaker come into the class. I have long forgotten his name but I will always remember what he said. "Hey, when you go there, make new friends and always keep in contact with them. I’ve kept in contact with the people that I met there and they have been great friends. Hey for you single people out there this might be the chance you get to hook up with someone, hey one may even turn out to become your husband or wife." When I heard this, all I could do was laugh. I really thought that what he said was stupid.

When the time of the Simulation Conference came I was ready to go but still scared of how I would sound in front of these other schools. The simulations began and afraid to speak, I felt like I just wanted to crawl under the table and hide. After the first caucus, a break for fifteen minutes, I was relieved that I got out of there. Coming back from the caucus, I still felt the same way. A few more speeches were given and then someone called for a caucus once again. This time was different, there were people going around trying to come up with a “Resolution Statement”. My objective for this was finding the other two from San Jose State and talk to them because I still was scared. More time had passed and it was time to go home, I felt a sigh of relief because it was time to sleep and get out of the room. I think I might have even been the first one to get out of the room and I was sitting in the very front.

The next day came and I was still afraid. When simulation began I had the same feeling as I came to the conference. Later on that day, a caucus for thirty minutes was called; one person came to talk to me and asked me about my views on the topic, after she had heard what I had to say, she called over a few more, this was her schoolmates and country’s allies. We began talking and I was feeling better about the situation. From that point it was a beginning of a new friendship.

Day three came and I was ready to tackle whatever was put in front of me. I worked hard during the caucuses trying to write those Resolution Statements based on the topic. Working with my new found friends was fun. Later on in the day, the Chairperson called an end to the day; however, they said that it was okay for the Committee to work on their Resolution Statements outside of simulation. I worked on Resolution Statements with my new friends, and we did not sleep most of the night and I did not come back to my room until three o’clock in the morning working on our proposal. I did not feel scared anymore.

Day four, this was our moment. Our proposal that my friends and I drafted along with other “countries” was put to the test and we had to defend it. We all stood up there trying to defend what we proposed and everyone liked what we had to say. Later on it came to a vote, remarkably our resolution statement passed, eighty percent of the countries voted for our statement.

At the end of the conference, two of the three countries, Bangladesh and Iran, that were represented by San Jose State took home certificates. After all the hard work of writing the necessary paper work and late nights working with my new friends and working with my fellow Bangladesh diplomats, we took home a certificate that we did not think we would have a chance at having. Bangladesh's diplomats were (From Left To Right) JaMa DeGuzman, Sergio Jimenez, Jenniffer Candelas, Corinna Reyes, and Angelina Rocha.

After the conference had ended, I got emails and calls from my friends that I made over at the simulation. My friends are from the Philippines, we have kept in contact since we met. After the conference, they all went their separate ways exploring the United States. Some stayed in San Jose. It is almost seven months now since the conference; I still keep in contact with them. We have become really good friends and when I think back to the guest speaker’s quote, I still laugh because it came true that I would have great friends. This is one of the reasons why I wish they offered Model U.N. once again. This is where crew T.G. began too. Because of 5109, this was where it all began. This was an experience that will last a lifetime.

Model United Nations, 5109, and crew T.G. are only the beginnings of newly opened doors.


Photo Credit:

Model U.N: http://www.munfw.org/

Hyatt Hotel: http://sanfranciscoairport.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp

Bangladesh Group Photo: George David taken on my camera

I think I must retract my post last week. I think this week is “Hell Week”. I must retract it because of what is going on in Southern California. There is no doubt that I love Northern California; however, this week I must dedicate my time in telling you why this week is what I consider “Hell Week”. Sunday was where it all began.

I went to work like any normal day; however, when I got there it was a totally different story. On a regular day I would come in to work and find that there are batches of items to be taken out of their locations in the backroom to replenish the store. But this day was different because it turned out that none of my co-workers in the backroom showed up to work, this meant that I had to work four times as hard as I usually do. To get items out of their locations within two hours is a hard task, but on this day, it was quadruple the size. This led to my grumpiness throughout the day of work. A few hours later, I find out that my supervisor is working; however, he did not help me at all. When I asked him if he could help me, he told me that he was busy doing something else and that he did not have time to do so, this infuriated me even more. I was ready to throw my equipment at him and tell him, “I quit A**hole!” but I stopped myself from doing so. In the end, I worked by myself finishing all that was needed to be done and then going home very tired. As I came home, I remembered that I had to write a paper for my Local Government class, after realizing this, it was time for me to stay awake for another five hours to read the chapters and write my essay based on what I read and the volunteer work I did for a campaign in Palo Alto.

The morning of Monday came and I was still writing my paper for Local Government. It became obvious that I was going to need to finish the essay later that day because I wasn’t close to being finished. Around eight o’clock in the morning I drove off to school hoping this day would only get better. Around 10 A.M. I got a call from my sister, “Hey Jars, I want you to know that I am safe and that school has been cancelled. I am going to go to work and stay there until 4:30 PM and then I will try to go home and pack some things.” I was stunned to hear what she was saying because I was unaware of the situation. It turns out that my sister, Jazzie, was calling me in regards to the wildfires occurring in San Diego County. After hearing Jazzie’s call, I was worried. I finally went to class by 1:30 PM; however, I was still worried because I had other relatives that live in San Diego. As soon as I got out of class I went to the Student Union plugged my laptop and tuned into the newscast, via a live feed, from San Diego. I then called my relatives in the other parts of San Diego, once I got a hold of my relative, they told me that they were alright and nothing has happened in their part of town. At the same time I was watching the news, I had to write the rest of my paper for Local Government. I finally finished writing the paper. I called my sister to tell her to keep me posted on anything that happens. I finally head off to class after talking to my sister and printing out my paper.

My Local Government class is scheduled at 6 PM to 8:45 PM; however, the class was cancelled last week. I expected that the professor to be there because the class is only taught on Mondays, but it turns out that class is cancelled once again. I was disappointed that I was not going to be able to turn in my paper even after I worked on it for so long. I drove back home and tuned into the news once again to catch up on new developments. It was probably 11:30 PM and I had not started my homework, when I got a call from Jazzie once again, she told me that the area that she lived in was not affected by anything but at the same time she had packed up some of her things, in case she needed to be evacuated. I felt a little better about the situation until I got another call from my cousin, Frances, saying “Hey Ja, it is Ate Frances, we are packing our things right now and we are leaving the house, there is a wildfire getting closer to our house and we are being evacuated.”

The call from my cousin was the beginning of a long Tuesday. I was beginning to do my homework at that time the call came in because I usually do homework around midnight. My Tuesday was just starting and I was panicking. As I did with Jazzie, I turned on the news and watched for new developments. Because the fire was so close my cousin’s house, I needed to listen closely to what was going on. Around 2AM, she called me once again to tell me that her family had packed up their stuff and was about to take off. At one point she said “Hey Ja, give me once second, I just have to take a picture of the fire.” I surprised by her comment, so I said, “the area is burning and you want to take a picture of the fire? What are you doing? Get out of there.” After that I was just watching the news till about 5 AM and by then I was just so caught up in what was going on, I never got to do my homework. The only piece of homework I finished was the one page that I turned in for this class. I was just so frightened for my cousin and her family. Finally, the morning came and it was time to go to school.

I began my school day by going to P.E. and then to my boring Asian Philosophy class. I was still worried about my cousin; I decided to watch the news again. The newscasters did not even mention anything about the area my cousin lived in. After my Asian Philosophy class I called them once again to find out if there was anything going on in their area. Frances said “We are good right now; we decided to go back to the house.” I shook my head in disbelief because the area is burning and they wanted to go back to the house. Around 4:30PM I left school to go home, by then the area where my cousin lived was cleared and they were allowed to go back to their homes. When I got home, I was extremely hungry, but it turns out that nobody had cooked yet. This meant that I had to cook dinner for my family. Even though I was tired from a long night and a very tiring day at school, I still cooked for my family.

It was Wednesday and there wasn’t anything different, I was still worried for Frances and Jazzie. By this time the wildfires were being contained especially in their areas. The day was normal and I went to and came home from school like any normal day, but when I got home it was the same story as the day before. My family decided that they were going to wait for me to cook dinner, so I cooked dinner for them. Even though I had so much homework to work on, my family still made me cook dinner.

Thursday, my mind was still going crazy because of all the homework that I had to stay awake for. I stayed up till 4AM to finish the rest of my homework. Exactly like Wednesday the day was normal until I went to my job. When I went to my job, I found out that the ones that worked earlier in the day decided that they were going to do a half-a** job. This meant that they were going to leave most of the work for the closing shift. The closing shift for Thursdays is one other person and I, meaning it was going to be a hard day at work already. Upon learning of the half-a** job that my co-workers did, I also learned that the other closing team member had called in sick too. This became another bad day at work; however, this time my supervisor wasn’t there for me to want to be pissed off at him.

This is how my week has been so far. There is more to come today and tomorrow.

Photo Credits:
Pictures of Wildfires: http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-10-24/61137.html
Picture of Chefs: http://www.fotosearch.com/PHC007/73258993/

How much time does a student really have? I must say that a student does not have enough time to do much of anything. Most student have the time to do their homework, essays, projects, and studying among other things that school requires him/her to do. But if you had the time, what would you do with it? I asked this question to many of my friends and I got many of the same answers. The consensus was that most of my friends would like to go out to the mall or hang out with other friends. Another answer that many agreed to was to go drinking. Well, after asking some of my friends I felt that I was not getting anywhere with the question that I asked them. However, after more answered the same way, I finally got something new. This person will be remain nameless, however, his response was last semester when he had very little time away from school he made a wallet. I was impressed with this new answer. So I said, "I see, you made a wallet." Then I turned around and walked away because I thought he was joking with me.



Later on, he goes to pay for his share of lunch and I see that his wallet is covered in duct tape. So, I said, "Ey bro now I can tell you made your wallet, because its almost torn apart that you had to duct tape it together." All my friends started laughing because of what I had said. He calmly responded, "Dude, I made this wallet. It is the new thing! It is called a duct tape wallet. Look." So I took his wallet and surprisingly it did not have a wallet inside rather cardboard that was measured to make a wallet.



After seeing and feeling this wallet, I asked him where did he got the idea for it. He said, "he saw it online at a store and it was selling for an expensive price. So I decided that why spend that much when I could spend less and make it myself."



This is what it looks like.







So I did a little bit of research on what he was talking about. On eBay duct tape wallets sell for 10 dollars and up to 8 dollars in shipping.



To my knowledge duct tape cost 8 dollars already for a roll. And cardboard could be found at home along with scissors. So how much should one really pay for this wallet?




This is ingenious, how they make wallets out of duct tape and cardboard. But I have found more items that one could make with duct tape: skirts, roses, check books, hand bags among other things. Practically this means anything can be made as long as duct tape and cardboard are capable of shaping that way.

Photo Credit: http://www.ducttapefashion.com/

Well, it is about that time again in the semester. You know that time where you cram and cram all day long for a whole week just so that you could pass your midterms. Yeah it is that time of the semester. For the past two semesters I have been at San Jose State I have had the luxury of my professors spreading out the midterms and essays through out the the semester. Each semester I could handle the loads of homework, essays, midterms, and projects that have been given to me (Except for that one professor who shall not be named, No it is not Professor Wood). However, this semester has been different, with my two week long leave away from school I had to play catch up especially because the semester was only beginning. Also, in part that this year, the professors that I chose designated theirs midterms, papers, and quizzes all around the same time. It is not that I am complaining, it is just in part that I wanted to say that next semester I need to plan my schedule better than I did this semester.



So in light of all this midterm, essays, projects, quizzes, and projects I found something very funny. I don't know about anyone else but in order for me to really stay awake I have to drink energy drink. Yes, I know that they are bad for you; however, I need it. I do want to pass my classes and graduate at the end of the school year. So back to energy drink. What is the purpose of an energy drink.



"Energy drinks are beverages like Red Bull, Venom, Adrenaline Rush, 180, ISO Sprint, and Whoopass, which contain large doses of caffeine and other legal stimulants like ephedrine, guarana, and ginseng. Energy drinks may contain as much as 80 mg of caffeine, the equivalent of a cup of coffee. Compared to the 37 mg. of caffeine in a Mountain Dew, or the 23 mg. in a Coca-Cola Classic, that's a big punch. These drinks are marketed to people under 30, especially to college students, and are widely available both on and off campus" (Health Department of Brown University).



Well that only means that energy drinks will make you stay awake for long periods of time. Okay, fine let's get to the funny part. I am at the library on Wednesday doing some reading drinking my energy drink because the day before I hardly got any sleep from doing all the other reading I had to do for other classes. So in the midst of my reading another student walks by and I look up. I don't know who it is but I notice that he was holding a Monster Energy Drink. So I think, he must be doing some reading and catching up too. So I go back to my reading minding my own business. 5 minutes later, I hear this loud snore, so I look up. I was thinking who could that be. After looking up I see that same guy that had the energy drink in his hand with his head down on his back pack and the Monster in his right hand snoring so loud. I said wow that energy drink worked out really well for him. Yeah, I thought energy drinks were suppose to keep you awake for a long time at least enough that you could do some reading not sit down for 5 minutes and pass out.


Quote: http://www.brown.edu/Student_Services/Health_Services/Health_Education/atod/energydrinks.htm

As I signed up for classes over the summer, I had many options. So I signed up for all the classes I wanted. Nevertheless, I got into all of them. In my search for books at the beginning of the year, I ended up finding out that my friends had some of the books that I was going to need for the upcoming semester. The books that I borrowed from some friends were, The Grouchy Grammarian, Local Politics, and The Brief Penguin Handbook, or so I thought I was going to be able to borrow them. This is not where the frustration begins. Out of the three books that I was going to borrow from my friends I got two of them, The Grouchy Grammarian and Local Politics. I was happy I got two out of the three. I asked another friend if "the Brief Penguin Handbook" was needed. His/her answer was that I was not going to need that book. My friend that I would have borrowed the book from said that he/she needed to go look for it. A few days later, I was told that my friend forgot that he/she had sold it back. So I decided that it wasn't in my financial interest to buy the book, especially if I was not going to need it. I am not at all frustrated yet.

As class progressed, it became obvious to me that I was going to need that book after all. Still grasping the fact that I was informed that I was not going to need the book, I still did not buy it. Then last Thursday, I must admit, I was blind sided by the fact that I did not read the Green Sheet and notice that there would be a quiz on Tuesday. By this time I should be frustrated at myself, but I am not. Monday rolls along well; however, I remember there is a quiz tomorrow. This is my train of thought, "Shit, I got to get that book!" I walk over to the "trusty" Spartan Bookstore, and to my dismay the book is not there. I think, "Oh shit, I am so busted for tomorrow." This is where my frustration started. I call up some fellow classmates to see if, by any chance they has read the book yet and if so, were they willing to let me borrow the book so I could study. The first call I made the answer I got was, "Dude, I have not even touched that book yet, Sorry bro." The second call, "Yeah, I have the book, but I just bought it today. So I don't think I can let you borrow it. I got it at Robert's Bookstore." Frustrated that I had to walk to Robert's Bookstore now.

Eagerly trying to get the book, I speed walk to Robert's Bookstore, and find out that there is only one copy left. So I grabbed it because it was the last one and it was BRAND NEW. Did not care how much it was going to cost me. Paid the cashier and walked on over to my 6 o'clock class. By 9 o'clock I got to my house and got started on my homework. Still putting off the other readings, I finished other homework. Finally around 11:45 P.M. I was ready to read The Brief Penguin Handbook. Looking for the chapters I was suppose to read, I noticed some of the pages were falling out, so I turned to those pages. This is where I really get frustrated. I found out that some of the pages were bound incorrectly and backwards. You would think that because it was a BRAND NEW book, the pages would at least be right side up and bound in the order it should have been bound. But, NO it was not and I had to take apart the book that I JUST BOUGHT and put the pages in the right order.

I thought it was a good time for me to step away from the Philippines and bring out a new topic.


Apparently, the current game of the year candidate right now is Halo 3. I must admit I have and still am playing this game. I was sort of disappointed last time when Halo 2 came out because I did not find it as good as the first one. This year, I have to admit that Halo 3 is by far the best one in the series. Just seeing the graphics and animation is already worth the price I paid for the game. Moreover, playing online is so much better because I can go against others and interact with those other online players. Halo 3 is the game of the year.


Halo 3 is the game of the year, but what is the console of the year? Right now there are so many game consoles out right now.



From Sony there are three main game consoles out right now: PlayStation 2 (PS2), PlayStation 3 (PS3), and PlayStation Portable (PSP).

From Nintendo there are four game consoles out right now: Nintendo GameCube (GC), Nintentdo Gameboy Advance (GBA), Nintendo Wii (Wii), and Nintendo Dual Screen (DS).

From Microsoft there are two game consoles: XBOX and XBOX 360 (360).



According to my last count at home we have all these game consoles; however, I hardly get to play them. Do not get me wrong I love gaming but I just have not been able to play. But every time I go to the stores such as Target (my place of work) and WalMart, I always seem to find the Nintendo Wii always out of stock. So I ask why is the Wii so popular?

Because the Wii is geared to be family oriented and allows people to "exercise" are the reasons why the Wii is so popular. Also, the Wii is cheaper than the other game consoles, which leads me to believe that prices also factors into the popularity of the Wii. By far the PS3 and 360 are the leading game consoles to be advertised on television. However, it seems as if the Wii is kicking butt in sales. A report shows that the battle between the three game consoles are intense but the numbers shows that the Wii has won the January sales.


"Once a dark-horse contender, the Wii has outsold both its competitors in recent months. According to sales data from the NPD Group, the Wii sold 335,000 units in February to the Xbox 360's 228,000 and the PS3's 127,000. Of the three new-generation game consoles, the Xbox 360 has sold the most at 5 million units in the United States alone, but that's mainly due to the fact that it was released a full year earlier than either the Wii or the PS3. Since they first hit shelves last November, the PS3 has sold 1.1 million units while the Wii has tallied 1.86 million"(Bruno, Anothony).

I think the sales alone prove that the Wii is the game console of the year.

I mean the Wii is so popular that my cousin and sister who are in their late 20s, my parents, and my aunts and uncles love playing on this game console.

These videos shows how my cousin and sister both have fun playing the Wii.

Photo Credit: Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PS3, and PS2 - http://www.gamestop.com/

Photo Credit: Xbox, Wii, GameBoy Advance, GameCube, PSP - http://www.ebay.com/

Video Credit: JaMa DeGuzman

Quote: Bruno, Anthony. "Wii are the champions?." Reuter's 02 Apr 2007 27 Sep 2007 .

Hey all, What's up? Again, is the time to post! Anyways, the last time I was talking about the weather and the security. This time I must tell you of the driving experience there. Sometimes the driving and riding experience there is very scary. There are driving rules that are posted like the ones in the United States; however, those rules as my cousin Roeder said, "Those rules are there as laws, but the drivers here believe them to be merely a suggestion." Also, in the Philippines you can drive on the wrong side of the road and not be pulled over. Another idea that makes the driving experience there kind of scary, is the fact that driving lines are not followed and also the signal lights on the car are not used to change lanes, rather only to turn the corner. Sometimes the driving there was scary even though you were not the one driving.

Well I am back from the Philippines now if you have not noticed.

There are many things that I am thankful for being here in the United States. The Philippines is totally different from the U.S. through weather, security, the laws, traffic rules, and the driving experience itself.

Coming in at 4:30 am on a day late August, you would come to believe that it would be cold and windy. Also you would believe that the day would be cold because the temperature on the TV screen on the airplane said 69 degrees Fahrenheit. As I stepped down from the airplane, it became apparent to me that even though I have been to the Philippines more than three times that I was still not ready for the weather. Taking that first step from the airplane I was blasted with the humidity and the heat at 4:30 in the morning. My feeling was cold airplane and right when you step through that door, I was hit with pouring sweat. You would think that someone through a bucket full of water on me, I was soaking in it. Everyday I wake up 5 o'clock in the morning, its really cold because I stayed in an air conditioned room, but in order for me to eat breakfast, I was suppose to leave the room and go to the table. As I come out of the cold room, it was that time again. Sweating and in the heat of about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, I did what any normal person that cannot stand that weather would do. Eat as fast as I could. From there I would stay in the room so that I would always be cold. However, after being in Las Vegas 3 weeks prior to my trip to the Philippines. The weather became more bearable. So throughout the rest of the trip I was able to handle the weather.













On the day that I left the Philippines, I had decided that I was going to come home in shorts and collared shirt. Being absent minded by that time. It never came to me that it was early September back in the United States. So in my mind, I believed "I'm coming home from the Philippines and it was hot so the U.S. will be hot too." Again, I was wrong. Upon exiting the airport I was shivering in coldness and because I did not have a jacket or sweater. Thankfully my Uncle Tony and Aunt Grace came within 5 minutes of me waiting outside in the cold. After loading my luggage I jumped into the car to find out that the Air Conditioning was on in there too. So I was still cold regardless of me being inside already. So lesson learned... Don't Judge Quickly.




Another part of my experience was the security. I have to be honest, The United States lacks security compared to the Philippines. Every mall and every eatery you go to there are at least two security guards. I would say that almost everywhere you go there are security guards. Even the locals McDonald's has a security guard. What do we have? Nothing. Although, the security guards do not really check you they at least open the door for you. However, when it comes down to mall security. In the Philippines, at the mall right when you walk in they check your purse or back pack at the door and they quickly pat you down to see if you have any weapons on you. Now how cool is that? In the U.S. where is that kind of security? I mean we have all the trust in the world but look how we use it. There are people that rob stores or hold people up or open fire in a mall. We can trust the people but look how much of an open target we are. In the Philippines they trust them but for security reasons might as well check all people. Wish I took a picture of this but I forgot to do so.

Hey all, JaMa here hailing all the way from the Philippines.

If you have not noticed, I made it to the Philippines.

So it was late at night when I took my flight out. My family and I waited at the airport for four hours. After waiting for four hours, we finally boarded the flight. When we boarded the flight, I already knew that it was going to be hours before I saw any land. However, knowing that there would not be any land for sixteen hours, I decided that classes were in session and that I had a lot of homework. Getting started on my homework I started reading for my Anthropology class, twenty minutes into the reading I passed out. It was that boring. So what else is there to do on this flight? Well, after sleeping for a hour and half I woke up and was served food. I must admit the food on the flight was not that bad. So still on this flight I am trying to do my reading again and I have two kids kicking my seat while trying to read. So I have to get up and talk to their parents and ask if their 12 and 14 year old kids to please stop kicking my seat.

After 2 hours of kicking the kids finally stop. But by this time I am so tired I went back to sleep. After sleeping a hour, I woke up to watch Spiderman 3, Shrek 3, and You've Got Me, as the in flight movies. Finally, by this time I thought I was ready to do homework. I find out 20 minutes later that I still was not. I was still groggy and sleepy but on the flight movie channel was a comedy show and so i watched it. By this time I was ready to go to sleep again but I could not because there was maybe 6 babies on my side of the plane alone plus the ones sitting in the middle section. So there was no way of sleeping, anymore. So in the end my flight was pretty good, right?

Sports and Politics, Do they relate to each other? Some people say yes and some say no. What do you think?

As a sports fanatic, I have come to realize that Sports and Politics do mix together. As much as I do not want them too. Take a look at the world of Baseball. You have players breaking records left and right. Whether it is Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Mark McGwire, or Rafael Palmiero it seems as if the sport will be tarnished with steroid allegations for a very long time. From Bonds breaking the two homerun records to the remarkable careers of Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro, this baseball era has been dubbed the Steroid Era. Two players have come to testify in front of the Supreme Court and the other has allegations that surround him that keeps him from playing the game. However, there is the "lone ranger", Alex Rodriguez, he is the youngest player to hit five hundred homeruns. I believe sooner or later that he will be next to be on upcoming allegations. It may be steroid use or some other "illegal" rule that Baseball imposed. Truly, I have a strong belief that he will be next because he is the most known player as of right now.

Another sport that I believe is ran by political garbage is Basketball. Take David Stern, NBA Commissioner, if he picks a team to win, he tells the referees and that is the team that will win. There are many ideas to Basketball that are hidden. Many understand the concept of the sport, shoot the ball and score the most points. Well here is the real information that you need to know. Tim Donaghy was an idiot referee that got caught. If you take a Kobe Bryant, that does not pass according to critics, and look at Los Angeles Lakers statistics, you will see that he is the Assists Leader for the team. Take Kobe Bryant in another light, he is playing in the game. He drives the ball to the basket, gets hit four or five times. Everyone knows that he should go to the foul line and take free throw shots. However, they do not call the foul. Why would they not call that. The answer to that is Politcs. Referees know that it was a foul and they did not call it because the game was already determined by the commissioner. So from other people's point of view Kobe should drive the ball to the basket again. However, Kobe knows better because he knows that he will never get the call that he wants. So what does Kobe do? He takes the ball and shoots it instead of driving the ball to the basket.

More Political Garbage in Sports. Michael Vick and the dog fighting allegations. What is there more to say? He did the crime now pay up and do the time! I do not think that his "apology" is worth more than a penny. But what can I say, at least he apologized for doing what he did. NO, I dont think it was really an apology it was more of an "I hope this can save my ass" speech. Now, should he be incarcerated? Should he be suspended? I would have to say that he should be fined exponentially and suspended for a year, but not incarcerated.

It is all Politics baby. Politics in sports is the same garbage that you get in Politics today.