hello 2012!

After a long hiatus, I've finally decided to go back to what i love doing most: talking to myself through an internet platform called a blog. Kidding aside, writing specifically writing about basketball has always been my first love so i'm back!

well first off, i stopped blogging because i got caught up in so much school work. Senior year has been filled with many surprises, and as the word suggests i didn't see all these coming and my initial reaction was to shutdown every thing outside my academic sphere and focus on  International Economics, Leadership&Strategy, Philosophy and the likes. Only to find out that eventually i would find myself more occupied by something outside school. something i would like to call the "act of living:" i'm not saying that there is no life in school, all i'm saying is that there is more to life than just school.

Anyhow, i'm blogging again for two main reasons:

1. School's almost over hence i have more time to allot to random thought vomit via the internet

2. My life's just getting started, the shit just got real, and i figured every historic milestone must be documented. 

So what have i done so far with my life... nothing huge. 

All i know is that in a month's time i'll be graduating. I'm not really sure if the concept of GRADUATING has really sunk into my senses. but as of now, i'm living life one day at a time. :)

ATENEO’S WALK IN THE PARKs.

First off, I didn’t expect I’d be watching this game since it’s on a Thursday; luckily the Academic Convocation suspended all my classes from 12-6pm. Next thing I know I was sitting behind the Blue Eagles ecstatic to see what the fuzz on NU’s Bobby Ray Parks was all about.

The face-off started strong, Ateneo drew first blood from back to back baskets by Salva and Ravena but the bulldogs didn’t trail far behind as the first quarter ended 16-11 for the Blue Eagles.

Come the second quarter, Ateneo’s fullcourt press deterred NU from catching up and turning the ballgame around. I must say, Kirk Long’s defense is precisely what stopped Parks from having another breakthrough performance following his feat against UP. Though Parks scored 20 points throughout, I didn’t really feel his presence in the court, maybe it’s because the points came as hiccups and he didn’t have momentum.  

I was bored for the most part of the game, Ateneo simply went on a shooting-spree and at the end, the championship experience mixed with collaborative teamwork prevailed over individually skillful players. At one point, I just thought the game was a mismatch, can you blame me, the final scoreboard with 86-62 says enough.  

Indeed, even an African-American superstar import could not withstand Ateneo’s aggressive defense and this game proved to be nothing but a walk in the park for the Blue Eagles.

Now that NU is no longer considered a threat to the Loyola-based dribblers. Who is? I am smelling a 4^th bonfire. Well it would be nice to end college with a bang! ALL OUT ALL HEART! ONE BIG FIGHT!

Til the next game.

Xoxo,

J.  

THE ARCHER IS NO MATCH TO THE EAGLE’S RAVENaCLAW.

As I arrived in the Araneta Coliseum, I was welcomed by the reverberating drumbeats, roaring school cheers, and a myriad of people wearing either blue or green. Indeed, this is it! The much-anticipated Ateneo-LaSalle match-up is taking its course and with stronger players in both rosters the audience is reminded that definitely anything can happen in this ballgame.

The Blue Eagles may have the advantage from its three-peat championship experience and dauntless rookies in the likes of Greg Slaughter and Kiefer Ravena but of course La Salle didn’t enter the battlefield unprepared and brought LA Revilla and two towering players namely Arnold Van Opstal and Norbert Torres to their defense. Such guarantees only one thing: to keep everyone on its feet.

More so, as much faith I have to the Ateneo squad, I can’t deny the fact that they struggled in their first game against Adamson, and to add insult to injury, the most sought-after rookie Kiefer Ravena came off from a scoreless debut.

At the sound of the buzzer and the start of the game clock, the crowd intensified, the players were pumped-up, the coaches had their gameface on, and I was ready for another spectacular showdown of our country’s fiercest rivalry.

Kiefer Ravena drew first blood as he penetrated through La Salle’s defense with his strong inside basket. As he went on a 6 to nothing run against La Salle, everyone can tell, that this game is all about redemption, and Ravena didn’t take any easy route in redeeming himself, as he made difficult baskets left and right, contributing 24 points for the Blue Eagles. I was also amazed by how athletic and witty this kid is; he was running into offense and immediately anticipated a foul so he released the ball at the three point line (at first I thought it was a stupid airball haha!) and received three charities, some amazing stuff from a rookie right? IKR.

Greg Slaughter, though he didn’t score much, made sure that his 7”0 ft. tall presence is felt with a slamma jamma that pumped up the whole Ateneo crowd! And he also put remarkable defensive stops with his “on-your-face-blocks” against La Salle.

Kirk Long (yes, since he’s my favorite player he’ll always have a place in my blog/heart) played like the co-captain that he is and scored 10 points in the game.  Though he may not have executed from the 3point-arc, his aggressive defense disabled LaSalle specifically Simon Atkins from attacking into the basket. Can I just say, throughout the game Atkins’ frustration and desperation have been so evident, well I can’t blame him, whenever Kirk enters the game he loses his spotlight. HAHA! At the end, Atkins was fouled out courtesy of Kirk Long.

Nico Salva proved that he is serious in attacking from the outside with his sharp baskets not limited to the paint and a crucial 3point shot that was badly needed by the team. He made the pivotal three-pointer that put back the morale of the Blue Eagles and showed that not even poor officiating can put a good team down.  

Spare me a minute or two to rant; this game had the most bogus officiating in the history of UAAP!  Words won’t even suffice to describe how ridiculous it was, well actually I’m just referring to one in particular: that bald referee! He called a backing violation against Tiongson even though Juami’s body didn’t even cross half-court, He called a foul against an Ateneo player who was standing right in front of another referee who didn’t seem to find any violation, and he called a foul against Kiefer which was not evident in the replay!  Such officials shouldn’t be allowed in the game because it undermines the credibility of the sport.

At the end, Emman Monfort’s 6 of 6 free throws sealed the game for the Loyola squad, and in the dying seconds of the game Coach Norman Black called a timeout. I was pretty surprised because clearly LaSalle can no longer catch up from the 9-point lead and he even sent Kiefer Ravena back into the game so I was a bit confused with what Coach Norman is trying pull off. As the ball came to play, Monfort was dribbling rigorously, and all the Blue Eagles went to one side of the court showing that they’re not planning to attack and add insult to injury; the Blue Eagles showed character and gained respect from everyone in the coliseum, even from the La Salle crowd.

Indeed, championships are not won by skills nor hard work alone, character is also as important if not more.

On Thursday, the Blue Eagles will be facing the NU Bulldogs at 1PM in Araneta. I’m excited to see what the fuzz on Bobby Ray Parks is all about!

As for now I shall indulge in this victory and contemplate on the fact that: kay sarap talagang maging Atenista! ONEBIGFIGHT!     

  

Snippets from a Survivor

I was asked to do a short write-up/essay for the Management Economics (MEco) student primer describing my experience as a 3rd year MEco student and basically giving a message aka warning note to the incoming students. I must say, being asked to do this was really flattering since i never imagined my writing prowess is worthy of such.

But in the middle of writing my short essay i found myself staring at an empty MS word page, lost for words. As it turns out i've spent half an hour writing and deleting lines over and over again. at this point, my ego deflated and the "writing prowess" self-destructed. I decided to go on Tumblr and turn on my iTunes just to get some inspiration. Seriously at that very moment, i would kill for a glimpse of creative juice. Then it donned on me, how on earth can I possibly be inspired to write about the practically most horrific experience of my student life?! HOW?? and WHY SHOULD I EVEN DARE?! those were the words screaming from my mind. But minutes later, I have decided to repress the drama queen in me, and come to terms with the reality that junior life wasn't as bad as it seems.

Here's my output and I can share a thing or two about student life. 

Snippets from a Survivor

Julienne Elyss D. Manalang

You know the feeling you get when you were a kid and everything around you felt so big? That’s exactly how I felt staring at my AISIS curriculum page for third year. Five units of OPMAN coupled with Marketing was a knockout combo and to add insult to injury I ended up with Fr. Dacanay for Theology.

Second semester proved to be nothing easy as Finance brought back the nightmares I had from Accounting wherein I get “paralyzed” the week before, studying for the three-hour exam. No Facebook, no Gossip Girl, nothing at all, just my Mozart background music, my calculator, and I sharing each other’s company in misery.  

Indeed, junior year was no walk in the park, there were days where you literally had to run with 15 minutes of sleep after working on your research papers and drown yourself with caffeine just to stay up for your next class. This is where I learned you didn't have to be in a horror movie to look like a zombie but luckily you have your groupmates to keep you in good company.

However looking back, I certainly wouldn’t ask my junior year to be less than what it was. Why? Because it gave me the best feeling in the world: I SURVIVED.  

To the incoming juniors, I’m sure you can pass through the obstacles. You’re an Atenean after all, you are trained for nothing less than the extraordinary and you have the heart of a Blue Eagle so prepare yourself to soar. In the end, you’d realize that your only huge problem in college is how to get tickets to an Ateneo-LaSalle UAAP basketball game.

I had doubts with my course, I felt like MEco wasn’t the right choice, but realizing that I fought through accounting, finance, and economics, made me affirm that where I am is where I want to be.  Dare to defy the odds, take risks and abandon your safe harbour because at the end of the day, the things outside your comfort zone are the ones you celebrate waking up for. 

Hope for the Best, Get Ready for the Worst.

You know what people usually say about expectations? KEEP THEM LOW, because it can be pretty tough dealing with disappointments. Some people get through it, some people don’t. So yeah, it’ll be smart to just play it safe.  But you see, I’m not the smartest in the bunch and as the story goes I have had my fair share of upsets. 

Most recent disappointment is my “616” random number for this coming semester’s enlistment, which is no surprise since I’ve always been in the latter part of the random number system and the best I’ve ever gotten was being in the second batch for the first sem of sophomore year.  So I’ve come to terms with the idea that, the thing the “random” number system and the drug testing in Ateneo share in common is that they’re both NOT RANDOM! However, this one really affects me because I need to get high grades before I graduate from college, and there’s not much time left to do that. It definitely is crunchtime, where you either do or die, and the last thing I need is being in the LAST batch and ending up with “leftover” classes and missing out on the legendary professors, the type that inspires you to stand on your desk and seize the day.

So yeah, I really am upset about this!

I’m not the girl who rants about break-ups, inadequate wardrobe, and delayed monthly periods. Rather, I rant about low grades, stupid referees, and random numbers!  

But at this point, all I should do is hope for the best.I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

The movie I've watched 36 times

Every time I tell people how much I adore the movie, "A Walk to Remember" i tell them I've seen it 36 times, i don't know where that figure came from but i guess it's my way of saying I've really watched it so many times over and whenever i do, i still get the same emotions from it, as if i'm seeing it for the first time.
I've seen it in French, with English subtitles since i only learned basic French
I've read the Nicholas Sparks novel for 4 times and
I've memorized the lines in the scene where Jamie admits to Landon she has leukemia.

I love this movie because it is a beautiful story of things that are important to me: love, faith, hope, sacrifice, and how sometimes you don't need forever to find things that last.

If you still haven't seen this film, well friend i'd hate to break it to you but you are missing half of your life. so take two hours of your time to watch this! trust me, it's definitely a walk to remember ;)

I made this collage of various scenes from the movie.

Sometimes i wonder maybe the reason i'm still single is because Jamie and Landon have set the standards of how I want a relationship to be.

Anyhow, this movie is really on the top of my list along with my other favorite romantic movies of all time

One day i'll have my own romantic movie! <3

Short Thin Strips Called Juliennefries

One of the stuff i fondly share with friends, especially to those i've recently met, is the "did you know my name is in the dictionary?" trivia! I've always been fascinated with the fact that, unlike most people, my name is in Webster's, however i am a bit disappointed knowing that it's not in the thesaurus, but come to think of it, i just realize now that it's a good thing because it only means that there's no synonyms for Julienne, it's unique and no other word would suffice. Also, my narcissistic disposition towards my name doesn't stop there, i smile and giggle whenever i'm in the restaurant and stumble upon my name in the menu, exhibit A: Julienne Salad! sounds really yummy right?

However, having such unique name can be pretty difficult whenever people have to get your name when ordering food or drinks, like in Starbucks, Taco Bell or Happy Lemon. I've gotten Julian, Juliet, Julie, Jillian, and JuliAnne. But i guess that's the price I have to pay for being unique.

The adventures of my name doesn't stop there, in school most of the people i meet, ask me whether i have a nickname because they find my name too long to pronounce, which still boggles me to this day because Julienne is just 2 syllables. Is an extra syllable too much to ask? I really don't get it.

So now that you know what Julienne means, you probably have an idea why my email address, blog, twitter account, tumblr, is JULIENNEFRIES. and no, it's not because i love french fries! and one thing i'd always remember about this is when my ITM professor read my info card, saw my email address, and laughed. I knew he got it, which happens once in a blue moon. He even commented at how witty it is. it was definitely a proud and fascinating moment for me. True Story.