Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Slowed, and some other Things

Slowed by the steady stream of work.  Not enjoyable in some sense but overall I am glad.  The year is going by very fast and soon enough it's time for vacation.

I have finally gotten around to reading "Towers of Midnight," Book 13 of the Wheel of Time.  Kudos to Brandon Sanderson.  He has managed to translate the compelling narrative of Robert Jordan in his own words, and yet magically capturing the tone of the earlier books of the series.  It is not the same cant the maestro ended up with (Book 11, Crossroads of Twilight, was begging to be snuffed out), but it is the flavor fans have been wanting to savor for some time.  Nice to read it in hardback, thanks to Jarir for knocking off the price.

"A Dance With Dragons" is up.  Never apprehensive in picking up George R.R. Martin.  Don't want to spoil anything for the prospective readers, so I will stay quiet about the book.  Prologue so well-written I got sucked in very quickly.

It's a comfort to get back into old habits.  Nine months into my tenure here and it feels like I've given birth to something better for myself.  Nice to get into fighting mood by firing broadsides at people who are overzealous on posting political links on FB.  But then, no.  Wouldn't add anything substantive to the discussion, except this:

1) If anyone is innocent until proven guilty, it stands to reason that anyone can be therefore charged and tried before a court of his peers.  We are not killing democracy by trying CJ Corona.  In the first place, we already shot ourselves in the foot by electing those senators and congressmen who are participating in the trial.

2) The eminence of Juan Ponce Enrile should be expected.  The guy is as old as the Sierra Madre Mountains, them mountains he and his family have denuded in the past 50 years.  Don't give him extra points for something he should have known for being in public service for at least 50 years.

3) Anyone claiming anything new about scandals of the Aquinos and Cojuangcos better brush up on their history.  We already knew that, and people still elected Cory, because she promised to dismantle the mechanism of Martial Law.  Exchanging Marcos and his crowd with the Aquinos and their crowd was simply that, an exchange of leaders with no visible difference except the promise of "democracy." That is why many middle-class people during that period straddled the fence, or stuck it out with Marcos.

Still, if you were there, or lived during the Edsa 1 times, which would you prefer - the "stability" of Martial Law or the chaos brought about by democracy?  Yeah,  I didn't have to ask that question.  Be glad of what was restored, and exercise your right to speak more responsibly.

As for the Cory revisionists who declare her all to be a saint - be wary of history's lessons as well.  TIME named her its "Woman of the Year" in 1986, only to call her government "one of the most corrupt in Asia" in 1990.  There were growing pains - a lot of them.

By the way, anybody with an advertising background can come up with drivel and still call it a history lesson.  (No use to link to that viral video on YouTube).  Egads, use your brains!

Friday, March 02, 2012

Homerism

Trade: ESPN Trade Machine

Sign of the times - March Madness is on its way, so my favorite TV show, "Fringe" takes a few weeks off so that the followers of the NCAA can get their annual bracket fix.

In the meantime, time to indulge in a little fantasy in the Association.  As a Boston fan, I would love for this trade to go down.  Boston rebuilds on the fly while maintaining its flexibility to either retain some of its key assets after contracts of said assets expire.

Orlando gets some pieces to keep itself competitive in the short-term and then they create cap flexibility to attract some new talent, while avoiding the quandary of losing Dwight Howard for nothing.  Ray Allen becomes their designated shooter either as a starter or coming off the bench, while Big Al takes over the post scoring duties left by the void of Howard's departure.   Allen comes off the books at the end of the season, while Jefferson during the next one.  The Magic get a chance to bid for a legit star next year or save all of their cap space to make a splash in the summer of 2013.

For Utah, they shed their redundancy of talent at forward and in Rondo they get the point guard they have been coveting to run their offense since D-Will left.  He would prove to be a great fit in Utah.  J-Rich is a rent-a-shooter whom they can package later for to get other talent, while J.O.'s contract expires at the end of this season and saves them some cash.

And of course, the Celts make out like bandits in this one, with a strong starting four of Harris, Pierce, Garnett, and Howard.  At the two-spot, they have an option of going small by starting Bradley or Dooling or going big with Daniels, Pietrus or Pavlovic.  If they go big, Pierce can either be the shooter or the driver as the situation warrants and they can go interchangeable on offense/defense.  I would personally prefer to give Bradley a little more burn, but the front office also has the option to manage his minutes by signing Free Agent X from the waiver wire or promoting another hopeful from the NBDL to be a reserve while the other veterans can soak up starter minutes.

Hey, it's free to dream, especially since I haven't slept much.  Here's to an exciting NBA trade deadline.