10 goals for 2010

First of all, goals are not the same as resolutions. New year’s resolutions are meant to be broken on the second week of the year. Goals are pursued and hoped to be reached within the year.

So, here’s my goals for 2010. I’m making it public to somehow make myself more accountable to these personal goals:

1. Spirituality – read the entire bible in Today’s New International Version.

2. Spirituality – be more consistent in my quiet time.

3. Spirituality – stretch myself to be more trusting in God by becoming more generous financially. Give more than the tithe.

4. Family – be creative in my date nights with my wife. Movies, while we both enjoy it, can be boring and redundant sometimes, you know.

5. Family – have a special 7th year anniversary celebration on July.

6. Family – spend more quality time with my kids. (Emphasis on “quality” since I do have more than enough quantity of time with them)

7. Business – release at least 2 rockin’ web application this year.

8. Business – be more aggressive in marketing

9. Personal – go back to the gym, be healthy and loose my growing belly. “Sa panahon ngayon, bawal ang magkasakit”

10. Church – be more aggressive in praying for God’s design to happen for “Grace Place” as we pursue a challenging yet God-honoring plan this year.

Mayweather v Pacquiao: It’s the RICE, Floyd

The Mayweathers

This blog, Resurgence 2.0, is subtitled “Theology. Technology. Politics. Whatever”. “Whatever” means sports, actually. So here’s my open letter to Mr. Floyd Mayweather, Jr. with regards to the recent controversy with Manny Pacquaio not giving in to his demand for random blood testing.

* * *

Dear Mr. Floyd Mayweather,

Greetings from here in the Philippines.

The moment I heard about your dad’s accusations last September of Manny Paquiao using Performance Enhancement Drugs (PEDs) or steroids, I laughed because I know he’s missing the main reason behind Manny’s great strength. Then you followed through, and your uncle, the Golden Boy and then the rest of the sports media. You are all making me laugh really hard!

You’re all amazed. You thought it’s not natural to have extra human strength as this. So, as what a typical American will conclude, it must be some type of drug that does this.

Floyd, it’s not the PED, it’s the RICE!

You have to understand this. You see, I grew up in a province north of Manila, Nueva Ecija, considered as the rice capital of the Philippines. I have a first-hand knowledge of this. When I was a kid, I have some classmates who have extra-human strength. They run faster, jump higher. They would always win track and field events, or win huge amount of money bets on street basketball. Our elders would ask, “Anong bigas ba ang kinakain ng batang ‘yan?!” (What kind of rice does that kid eat?!) So you see, there’s different kinds of rice, and there are some types of rice that makes one acquire extra-human abilities. It is well known in our town that the darker the rice is, the better it is to provide strength. Floyd, it’s in the rice.

If only you’ll see the workers we call “kargador” or “pahinante”. These people, at an average height of 5″3′ to 5″5′ can carry 2 to 3 sacks of rice on their backs all at the same time. The meanest can carry 4 sacks! That’s around 150 to 200 kilos — super human strength. What you do not know is that the same rice that they carry gives them super strength!

We also have here in Los Banos, Laguna, in a university south of Manila, a laboratory that invents different kinds of rice breeds. You know what, they keep improving our rice! It makes our people stronger by the day.

So I can’t understand why you keep on accusing Manny Pacquiao of using PED when it’s actually the RICE that makes him strong. Stronger than fighters, including you sir, who are bigger than himself. In fact, it is typical here in the Philippines for smaller guys to beat up bigger guy. Anyone who’s well trained in the farms and eat plenty of our rice can beat up any bigger guys in school.

Instead of pointing to PEDs, I suggest you ask GBP to include in the contract a way to test our rice. Maybe the kind of breeding process our rice undergo is not normal, or against international practices and standards. Because it’s in the rice, sir! It’s in the rice.

Or better yet, start eating rice — FILIPINO RICE, so you and Manny can have a level field if ever you guys will still meet in the ring.

Oh, by the way, aside from FILIPINO RICE, it’s the FILIPINO PRIDE that makes Manny stick to what he believes is right. In my opinion, our pride as a nation is bigger than $40M. Some sports columnists couldn’t believe why Manny would let go of the biggest paycheck for that silly little blood test. You don’t get it — because you’re not a Filipino. For you it’s just all about the money.

Please read these 2 great articles written by an American writer married to a Filipina about Manny Pacquiao and the Filipino Pride — here and here.

I hope this letter reaches you. I know you guys won’t anymore meet come March 13. In any case, I hope you’ll try our RICE for your next fight.

Sincerely,

Arnold “The Sinandomeng Eater” Gamboa

The Manny Pacquiao scandal: How to be a responsible “miron”

Thank you for visiting, I know any blog with the word “scandal” wins.

And talking about how to be a hero, let me switch channels and talk about how to become a responsible “miron”.

“Miron”, in our street lingo means a by-stander, a watcher, somebody who are not actually part of the action although he may feel he is.

Much has been said about Manny Pacquiao, our boxing hero, and his rumored affair with a sexy star. I’m not going to join the fray.

What I’m alarmed of is our natural tendency to over analyze things at the expense of the people involved. We’re good commentators. We blog about anything. We tweet and facebook things as if we know the people involved. Who knows who were hurt by those comments?

FACT: things that we know are based on what the media feed us. The media feed us of what we want. The juicier, the merrier. None of us know the context behind the supposed pictures, or the supposed videos on YouTube. None of us know any personal knowledge about the lives of these public personalities. So unless you are Jinky or Krista or Aling Dionisia or Kris Aquino, stop over analyzing and stop the blogging, will you all? You’re not helping. You’re in fact destroying the lives of the people involved. Gossiping is a sin.

Watch their lives — their public personalities anyway. But be a responsible “miron”.

The Powerful Pacman

I’m not going to make a sports analysis of the up coming Manny Pacquiao mega fight this Sunday morning (Saturday night Las Vegas). There’s plenty around the blogsphere. What I’m planning to do, though, is to show us what is already obvious — that Manny Pacquiao’s power and influences goes beyond the ring.

- Over the weekend, a battalion of lawmakers will migrate to the US to catch the Pacman. That means, there will be no quorum to vote for bills and the impeachment complaint against the ombudsman.

- Everything will stand still Sunday morning.

- Even criminals on the streets will take a break.

- Restaurants, cinemas and even hotels will be packed not by customers who want to eat or watch a movie, but by people who want to catch the Packman live via satellite feed. They are willing to pay P500 to P800 for this experience.

- Speaking of hotels, we’re even displaced from Tiara Oriental Hotel where regular services of Grace Place take place every Sunday. All function rooms will be occupied for the show of the day. We have no choice but to move the services to 2 pm to give way to the Pacman.

- And, yes, speaking of church services, as Steve Murell often says, churches will be full packed in the afternoon services. Why? Do the math, dudes.

The Pacman’s power will be felt all over the country this weekend. Let’s just all enjoy the moments, then slip back to exactly where we are at right after. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad, in any case, that’s exactly what it is anyway.

Good luck, Manny.

Bringing the online world to the real

I have a little project to make. I don’t know if this works out. I’ll try anyway.

My goal is simple: I’d like to bring my online world and my real world together.

My youngest child is celebrating her first birthday on Saturday (Oct. 17, 2009). My wife, who’s in charge of the list, asked me who’s I’m going to bring. (She’s bringing her friends from past jobs and some college buddies). I thought, well, I have my friends from work and church going. But that’s about it.

The problem with statement is the context: you see, I’ve had these friends for years, and nothing has changed. And that’s not good. I realized that most of my interactions happen ONLINE and not off line. That makes me have 250+ Twitter friends and 500+ Facebook friends — that I almost always interact with everyday online — and about 10 people that I talk to off line (not exaggerating). Kinda pathetic, if you’ll ask me. Blame it on my job.

So, here’s what I’m thinking. I’d like to invite anyone who will be gracious enough to meet me and my family personally on Saturday at about 3 pm for my child’s birthday party. If you:

• have not met me personally yet
• … and I have been online friends for quite sometime
• have a family and a kid to bring (he’ll enjoy it!)

… I will be honored if you’ll accept my invitation to meet me and be my offline buddy, too. :)

The event is happening at the beautiful DMCI community RiverFront in Pasig. It has free WIFI (so you can tweet about the party :D ) and a swimming pool — I will be sponsoring a swim for you and your family right after the party if you like (so, bring your wet suits).

Don’t worry about bringing a gift — I would just like you to be there. I only have one room for a family (of 3, including yourself), or my wife will kill me. :D If you don’t have a family to bring, you can bring a buddy with you.

It’s going to be fun. I promise, we’ll still talk about the internet and Twitter and Facebook. :D If you’re interested in this invitation, please send me an email arnold [at] gamboa.ph or at my Twitter account: arnoldgamboa.

PS: Oh, and I’m thinking a Filipino would not assert himself. So if no body contacts me by Wednesday, I’ll contact you ;)