Why I love Ping-pong

 If it was not for an injured wrist nearly a decade ago, I would not have discovered the joy of playing Ping-pong. I used to play several sports games way back in college. One of my favorites and where I play best was badminton. With the injury, however, and per doctor’s advice, I had to temporarily stop playing the sport.  

I like playing because of the action and exhilaration I derive from it. I have always been active. I have this extra energy that makes me restless and that compels me to keep busy. When I am not engaged in a physical activity; that would be a time I am absorbed in my reading. 

Anyway, I only used to watch Ping-pong players play. I was fascinated to the sport but not totally attracted to it. I thought that playing table tennis is very easy back then. That was until I held a blade and started hitting balls. From there, I discovered that it is no simple sport. I need control and a lot of recalls from my two 4-unit courses in physics. And how I loved the days of my learning it!!! I was lucky to have been taught by very good Ping-pong players. Very lucky indeed to have one male right-handed (Teng from Zamboanga) and one female left-handed (Ghi Evangelista from Los Baños, Laguna) players to coach me for free! With them, i learned to spar against right- and left- handed players.

My learning also involved playing with other graduate students staying at the Ipil Dormitory in UP Diliman. Back then, every free night was spent with fun and laughter learning and playing table tennis with very good players. We only have one table so that one who wants to play will have to queue, score and wait for a turn. There I played with Kuya Glenn Jansalin, Ate Cherry Nepomuceno, Ruel Perez (aka Worm), Joseph Abriam, Ronald Villanueva, Julius, someone from the Ilocos Region we call Congressman,  and many others. I wonder where some of them are right now. After leaving the dormitory, we lost contact.

Playing ping-pong and the endorphins it gives helped me survived my graduate studies in Statistics. Those were really happy days!!!  

Nowadays, I play Ping-pong with a friend. We play at Badminton Galaxy, 2^nd Floor Auto Galaxy Center, J. Vargas corner Meralco Avenue, Pasig City. Their number is (+632) 6376274. The place is really for Badminton players but they have two tables for Ping-pong. We rent for Php 100 (about $2) an hour.

Three kids with a kid

Baby goats are called kids and and human kids just loved kids. And so goes my two nephews and a niece who at first are just contentedly watching  an unknowing  and still knee-wobbling baby goat. Nanny goat is busy nibbling fresh grass several feets away.

While sitting at their watch point the three kids may have conspired and finger-pointed who will execute the plan because suddenly they bolted into action.

 Look at that!

Ayn cornered the poor kid and brother Xi helping. When nanny goat saw what’s happening, she came to the rescue. Xi scuttles away and left Ayn while Jimwell, their older cousin, came to aid her with the struggling kid. What a sight they made and what joy it brought them with the venture!

Eventually, they return the helpless baby goat to rejoin its bleating nanny. The mom nuzzling her baby and the baby taking comfort. Hmmm… the joy of reunion.

You… Procrastinator!

Whew! What a day? I barely breathe the whole day due to an unfinished documentation of the statistical modeling I have done ages ago. Its mañana habit to the extreme and adrenaline to the max, hahaha! Very reminiscent of my student days, i.e., cramming in every examination days and every time a project is nearing its deadline. You feel you are alive and exhilarated when you make it. Whew again! 

I remember during my graduate days in Demography when I nearly lost my scholarship. That was due to an unsubmitted project which if I cannot pass by 12noon says my professor, will cost me the degree. Shame!!! I passed my project 11:30am, 30 minutes before the deadline. Yahoo! In the end, after two years of cramming and barely beating deadlines, I finish the degree. But all these are just baloney; because I am nuts! And truth be told, I always hesitate passing a paper because there is always that thinking (not feeling), that I can still make it better. Hey man, how can you make it better when you already lack time? Grrr… 

Now, we go back to the real reason for this entry. A deadline is just a way to finish a project for people who can’t work without time pressure. And so long for procrastination, I surf for the cure of this seemingly incurable/uncurable pshyco disorder of mine. And lo, I find this site. According to Psychology professor, Dr. Sapadin, there are six types of procrastinators. I think i can qualify in two and not just one of the types. Meaning i am really a case. In the same article, author Bill Heavy says that:

“If you are a procrastinator, you will recognize yourself. Procrastinators have great intentions they never quite act upon; procrastinators are masters at rationalization and are usually aware that they are sabotaging their own happiness; procrastinators castigate themselves for their inability to act, thereby further lowering their self esteem and perpetuating the self-defeating behavior. The psychological underpinnings of procrastination are rooted in fear. Most procrastinators think they are just lazy. This is rarely the case, but it is easier to think that than discover and deal with underlying fears. The fears can be anything – fear of failure, fear of change, fear of completion, fear of losing the fantasy, fear of not measuring up, fear of reprisals, fear of humiliation….and any other fear that fits the bill.”  

So much for procrastination… I should be seeing a Shrink. 

Yeah, sure… later  

It’s Friday!!!

Its a Friday and almost everyone in the office left early. Others for home, others for gimmicks. Its a Friday, for heaven’s sake!

Every now and then i like thinking about what better thing i should be doing on a Friday night. After 5 days of work, it is good to reward one’s self with an early night perhaps (what a bore and what a rest?), a night out with friends with a movie (a love story for the love forlorn, hahaha), or a dinner date with friends (something to fatten the belly of sedentary people so absorb at work and has forgotten to exercise and even stretch). Whew!

 I am actually bored at work …  I don’t know anymore what to do with my life.  So many things i would like to learn (e.g. web programming, Oracle BI, Oracle Data Mining, SAS Web Reporting, Stata) ,  i would like to take the FRM or PRM examination and start reviewing. I think I need a shrink.

 The past three years give me three different employers. That would mean an average one-year of stay. I just had my first year anniversary with my current employer and here I am, asking whether i should be moving on again. I would like to get out of this restlessness.

What the heck? Its Friday! And i don’t like feeling this way…

A little boy and his slingshot

I saw this little boy following us  one time when we visited Sitio Tambugan in Aguilar (Pangasinan).  I went there with my two little nephews (5-yr old Jimwell and 2-yr old Xi) and niece (Ayn, 4-yr old) to let them experience the joy of wading and bathing in the clear and cool running waters  of an irrigation canal.  

The boy was rather shy and tongue-tied when i asked him where does he live so.  I should have persistently asked his name for posterity’s sake because unbeknownst to him, he will the be subject of this entry. He carries with him a slingshot. It was made of a simple Y-shaped branch of a greeny plant. The strings were several rubber bands and the stone holder came from an empty plastic container of a roasted peanut (one that can be bought for a peso in the local sari-sari store. Its called “Happy Peanut”). I took an image of his toy when he let it rest in a corner to gather some stones.

This picture of a happy rural boy very contented with his slingshot makes me wistful for a little boy of the same age who lives in an urban area; one who might not experience the simple joy of freely roaming a vast play ground with green trees and green grasses and wild weeds all around and who may never hold a similar hand-made toy.

 It gives me joy to know that there are a lot of little innocent kids still in the provinces contented with sling shots as a tool to get fruits that they cannot reach and not a tool to hit or hurt another. What a world we will live in if only life could be as simple and as basic.

On second thought, I wouldn’t have a blog if life is that simple… 

5-day old pony

Its been hectic at work today and the last two days. I can scarcely get time to write even just a note to populate this blog, harharhar.

Anyway, I went home to the province last weekend. My nephew said, we have a new pony from our filly. He took a picture and here it is.

 I promised him, i would blog the image. I am fulfilling that promise so as not to disappoint him when he does check. ü

Unit lunch treat

We have a colleague who is celebrating her birthday today.  Our unit decided to treat her for a lunch out. It is a unit lunch as well.  We had fun but i can’t give all the details now. I am going home early to prepare for a lecture i will be delivering on saturday. And since its birthday i started this entry about, I might as well share one things that goes with it.

12 Ways to Grow Old Gracefully 

Adapted from George Carlin, Suddenly Senior  

1.       Throw out non-essential numbers: age, weight and height.Remember the important ones: birthdays and anniversaries.

2.       Keep only cheerful friends. To be happy is to be wise. Tolerate the foibles of others.

3.       Keep learning. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop. And the devil’s name is Alzheimer’s.

4.       Enjoy the simple things. The garden grows more than what the gardener sows.

5.       Laugh often, long and loud. Laughter is the best medicine.

6.       Tears happen. Endure, grieve and move on.The only person who is with you in your entire life is yourself.

7.       Be ALIVE while you are alive.  Trust in the mystery of each experience.

8.       Surround yourself with what you love. Be it family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies…

9.       Cherish your health.   To lengthen thy life, lessen thy meals.

10.   Don’t Take Guilt Trips. Go to the mall, go to the country or abroad… but not where guilt is.

11.   Tell the people you love… that you love them at every opportunity.

12.   Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take… but by the moments that take our breath away.

 

Kiting with kids

During the holy week, my sister Leaher husband and two kids (Ayn and Xi) plus three  more nephews (Alan, Aeronn and Jimwell), a niece (Jen-jen) and I went kiting in an open rice field. Normally, holy week in the Philippines is a time when the rice fields are dried up due to the summer season and also when the farm lands are given their brief rest. Actually that was the second time we went kiting in the place due to its vast open area and ideal wind condition.

 

We flew the kites we brought and attracted a throng of farm kids.

 

The kids faces were familiar and they knew us already. They were happy to see us because sometimes we let them hold the strings and let them maneuver the kites also. It was a joy watching them happy with the simple things that make us happy as well.

 

 

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