Is The Pacman Really Back?

After almost a year since his earth-shattering knockout that had him out cold for a couple of minutes, Manny Pacquiao was back. And his first test since that dreadful day was a wild Mexican-American brawler from Oxnard, CA, Brandon Rios. I will spare you the details of all the pomp and pageantry that came with the promotion of this fight. It was your typical Pacquiao roadshow, courtesy of his promoter, Top Rank and its head honcho, Bob Arum.

What made this a little different from those in the past was that this fight was held in Macao. Yes, you read it right. Macao, the former Portuguese colony that has now returned to mother China. And why was this event held in Macao? Well, Top Rank wanted to promote big time boxing in Asia, particularly in the gambling kingdom of Macao. He also wanted to make sure such fights were more accessible to those in this part of the world. He even included an upcoming, former Olympic Chinese boxer as an undercard bout to draw more interest. These were all great reasons why the fight was held in Macao.

But were there more? Absolutely!

The main reason this fight was held in this part of the world was all about money -- much, much more money..... for Manny, Bob, and everyone else. And why was this so? Well, taxes are (much, much) less in Macao than in anywhere in mainland USA. Can you imagine all the monies that Pacquiao reportedly had made all these years fighting in the US, and how much he actually took home after taxes? I was surprised he didn't do it much sooner. He could have probably bought the entire province of Saranggani (of which he is the congressman of) with what could have been his earnings. Now I don't really know if it mattered for Rios because he would have paid US taxes anyway, regardless of where he fought since he is an American citizen. But not Pacquiao.

Manny Pacquiao (left) & Brandon Rios (right)

And the promoter had also figured out the pay-per-view aspect of this bout and how it was important that this fight be viewed in the evening, at prime time, in the US and in most of the Western world. All they had to do was to have the fights in the morning. So, the first undercard, scheduled to air at 6:00pm PST, Saturday, was fought at 10:00am, Sunday, Macao time. By the time Pacquiao got on the ring with Rios, it was almost 9:00pm PST, or almost 1:00pm. Seemed a bit unusual, but it's the just way it is. And these boxers don't really care what time of day they fight. If they're ready, they are ready.

I will not do a blow-by-blow of the fight. But I'll share with you what I saw. Pacquiao no longer has the same aggressiveness and appetite he used to have prior his terrible knockout. He was a smarter fighter, at least for this bout. He knew that he couldn't risk another careless approach, as he did the last time, and be stung by one lucky punch. I was expecting a brawl, as his opponent was one. But Pacquiao wouldn't have any of it. He would come in, throw his punches, then pull back and dance around. Very not-so-typical of him, or at least, from what I have seen of him in past fights. This was why the match went the distance, and he didn't even shake Rios one bit. His knees never buckled. It's either Rios just had a really tough chin or Pacquiao no longer has the strength to pull out a winning punch.

I didn't realize that a welterweight belt was up for grabs, but her got one. With his victory, I would expect more fights lined up for him. Will there ever be this dream match against Mayweather? Probably not. Pacquiao's win wasn't convincing enough. Not for me, at least. Are there anyone else tougher and stronger than Rios? I don't know. But he should start lining up better fighters if he wants to gain back lost prominence. Will another Pacquiao-Marquez be worth it? For the money, certainly! Will it really mean anything? Who said it mattered.

At the end of the day, it is all about MONEY -- lost of it. Is that right, Mr. Congressman? How much more money do you need? And have you asked your pastor about this? I am sure he will say, it's OK.

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge the New York Daily Times for the use of the photograph in this post.

Driving Nick

High school boys volleyball season is coming up soon and preparations are underway at Bell. Open gyms have been scheduled in the last couple of months, and today was one of them -- the second. And Jake has all these days memorized so he doesn't miss any.

Being a Wednesday, these after-school activities add to the complexity of the carpool pick-up -- mine, in particular. From my experience during the last open gym, I certainly didn't want to wait for 2 hours with nothing to do. So I was set on going back to Fremont from Bell. And the reason I had to go to Bell was to take Jake to dinner before open gym. His class ended at 3pm, and I didn't think he could wait till after 9pm to get something to eat. My plan was to take him to dinner at around 5, and be back before 6. Enough time to digest, rest, and be ready.

With that in mind, I suggested to Nick's mom that I could bring him home since I was heading back to Fremont anyway, but only if Nick could be patient enough to wait till 6pm. I knew his basketball tryout would end at 5:30ish, so he wouldn't be waiting that long. Otherwise, Nick's dad would pick him up instead. But Nick said it was OK to wait. So, going back to Fremont, Nick was my only passenger. Early that afternoon, Coby was picked up because he didn't have any activity after school nor did he want to wait till 6pm.

When I got to Bell, Jake was hungry, alright, but he didn't have any idea what he wanted to eat. The last time, we had pizza. I wasn't familiar with the neighborhood so I was at a lost myself. Yelp and Around Me apps could only provide so much suggestions, but we still had to choose. We narrowed it down to a pho place. And with 4 stars to its credit, courtesy of Yelp, we chose Pho Lynn.

Now, don't ask me where in the world this place is because I really do not know. I had to use Google Maps to find it. And when we got there, Jake was too scared to get down from the car. To me, it seemed like a seedy part of town. But at that point, we didn't have too many choices and time was running out. This restaurant was on the main drag (which I could not remember), but had back parking.

Pho Lynn from the back entrance

We entered through the back and aside from 2 tables, no one else was there. For a Vietnamese restaurant, I was expecting the aroma of hot, steaming broth and grilled meat. Instead, it was some funky, chemical odor that I couldn't describe. It wasn't foul, but just weird. If there was such a thing as a dive pho, this was it. Jake was apprehensive, and I was beginning to be as well. He ordered pho (aka rice noodle soup with meat), while I had a lemongrass chicken rice plate. As we ate, all we prayed for was that neither one of us would get sick with whatever it was we were eating. We consumed our meals as quickly as we could, then off we went.

We arrived at Bell before 6pm. Jake waited in the car a bit before he got off and looked for Nick. Soon after, both were headed back to the parking lot. With Nick on board, Jake strode off to the gym.

On our trip back, I knew Nick was tired. But I engaged him in some small talk. He shared with me his tryout experiences and the little nuances that came with it. We also talked about professional basketball, and some other sports stuff. The conversation was light and short. Nick, after all, is a pretty shy, quiet young man. In between conversations, he was fuzzing over his mobile device, like any typical kid his age. After about half an hour, we arrived at his house. Once he got in through the garage, I was on my way.

Tonight was ragchew night on 40m with some of the SBARA gang. We try to meet regularly at 8pm, every Wednesday to chat on HF, to while the time and to get more hams on HF. There were about 5 of us at the roundtable, and it was quite fun. I just wished I didn't have to cut it short since I had to pick up Jake at Bell. On the way, Al (WT6K) called in on the 2m repeater to see where I was. Whenever I drive solo, I always have my radio on. Keeps me company.

By 9pm, I was at the parking lot close to the gym, as I waited for Jake to come out. Then, we were on our way.

If none of these had taken place, Jake and I would have probably watched the Stanford-Washington women's volleyball match at Maples Pavilion. Well, it's one of those days....

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge Yelp for the use of the photograph in this post.

Hello Clovis

Our next tournament (#3) was in Clovis. None of us had been there, so I didn't know what expect. So far, this was the farthest venue we have played at in our short club volleyball experience. I had mixed feelings about this venue simply because it was far -- almost 3 hours far. And this was just a one day tournament -- a Sunday at that. Despite my apprehension, we were ready.

Since the tournament was a Sunday, most families indicated that they would probably drive down Saturday and spend the night. Call time was the usual 7:30am, and, with a 2.5-3 hour drive, that meant hitting the road no later than 4:30am, just to get there in time. I certainly didn't want to wake up at 3:30am and drive 3 hours. I've done it once and swore never again. Bay to Bay managed to secure a block of hotel rooms at Hampton Inn at a discounted rate, so I booked as soon as I learned about it.

A few weeks prior, I posed a question to our team parent and asked if we could ask for an earlier practice schedule the Saturday before the tournament. I knew it was wishful thinking, but it didn't hurt to ask. Practice that Saturday was 5:30-7:30pm. Assuming we left right after, we wouldn't get to Clovis till close to midnight. But, like I always said, we were prepared for it anyway. It was still better than waking up at 3:30am.

Over the course of the next few days, certain things happened. Harker was hosting some volleyball playoff games and it affected the Saturday practice schedule. By divine intervention, the practice schedules were arranged in such a way that the teams who had to go to Clovis practiced in the morning. Our practice got moved up to 9:30-11:00am. This worked perfectly well. I wanted to arrive in Clovis before the sun set, so I planned on leaving at 2pm. We ended up going at 2:30pm, and got there just as the sun set, just as planned. On Friday, I did a quick Costco run for our assignment food -- fruits. I got apples, grapes, bananas, and strawberries.

Finding the hotel and checking in was a breeze. We took a much deserved rest before we headed off to dinner. Jake took advantage of the lull to do his homework. Dinner was at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Fresno, which was less than 10 minutes away from the hotel. It was arranged by our team parent. However, only 3 families went. From there, it was straight back to the hotel. For a while, we considered grabbing some ice cream, but we were just stuffed.... and tired.

Sunday morning, with all the rituals and ceremonies completed, Jake headed down for breakfast, along with the rest of the team who spent the night at the hotel. I followed about 30 minutes later, and brought him to Clovis High School, site of the tourney. Then, I headed back to the hotel, did what I had to do, and went down with the wife for breakfast. Soon after, we checked out and headed for Clovis High.

For this tourney, we remained in 5th place in the Silver division. So our team's first order of the day was to officiate. Our first game was against MVVC 15-2, which we won in 3 sets. This was immediately followed by the match against CRV 16-1, which also went 3 sets. However, we lost. But it was one of those games that we could have won had we contained our errors. We split our pool, moving into bracket play. First match in the bracket was against Kamikaze 16-1, whom we defeated in straight sets. Next was a loss against BAVC 16-1. Another split. The next bracket didn't matter much. We knew we remained in Silver. All we needed to find out was whether we moved up to 4th, dropped to 6th, or stayed in 5th.

Prior to the matches in this next bracket, it was discussed among the teams that everyone would play one game, instead of best of 3 sets, since the outcome was really immaterial and was merely for placing purposes only. We played Clovis, whom we've beaten in the past, but lost to this time. As a result, we slipped to 6th place and they moved up to 5th since they were ranked lower than us going into this tournament. With this agreed format, it meant we could leave early. And so we did. By 4pm, we were on the road. Good bye Clovis.

Traffic wasn't bad for a late Sunday afternoon. For some strange reason, I thought our trip back was much faster. On the way, we were contemplating on whether or not we could hear mass at 6:30pm in Fremont. Well, it all depended on whether or not we got to Fremont by then, right? Again, by all-divine intervention, we did. We were approaching the Mission Blvd exit on 680S by 6:25pm, and we were inside St. Joseph church just as the priest and altar servers had processed up the altar. Just in the nick of time, yea?

It was a long day, and an even longer weekend. And all I can say is, keep the faith.

Note:  Author wishes to acknowledge Yelp for the use of this photograph in this post.

Mitty Or SBARA?

It's another Friday, and it's one of those days when you just have one too many things going on. Although not as packed as in past Fridays, it was still something to think about. First, a Bell football game against Archbishop Mitty. The other, the monthly SBARA meeting. What made the selection a little complicated was the fact that the football game was the last Bellarmine home game of the season, while the other was SBARA's last meeting for the year. And did I mention that 2014 officers were also being elected at this meeting as well? The choices we have to make....

After much self-deliberation, coupled with logical thinking and detailed rationalization, I decided to attend the SBARA meeting. With my choice, it didn't mean I was off the hook with my responsibilities that were tied to this football game. The other part of this story involved my son, Jake. He wanted to watch the game and was hoping that I would come. Like all the other kids his age, I didn't think they cared much about the game. It was more about hanging out with their friends, and, hopefully, meeting girls. All he needed me for was to take him to and from the game.

I didn't want to let him down, so I made sure he had a way of getting to the game. Fortunately, his BFF, Coby, wanted to watch the game as well, probably for the same reason like most everyone else. So I made arrangements with Coby's mom for a ride. After school, Jake hung around Coby's house till they left for the game. And everything went well. Now, I was ready for my gig.

Yaesu FT-60R

After dinner at my default restaurant, Cherry Garden, I headed to Hurricane Electric's facility in Warm Springs, which was the site for our monthly meetings. Being the last meeting of the year, a brand new Yaesu dualband handheld radio was raffled off, along with some other ham-related goodies and books. Also up for grabs were a couple of knitted scarves -- always a favorite during these raffles.

This month's presenter talked about ARES, or the Amateur Radio Emergency Service -- a service arm of the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL). Poor chap had to wait quite a bit before he could present. Typically, presenters come in and talk during the second half of the meeting. The first part usually covered introductions, news, announcements, and other business of the general membership. Then, a 15 minute break is taken, before the presenter is called in. For whatever reason, there was some spirited discussion about DXing, contesting, and 2x2 callsigns that prolonged the first half of the session. But it was all good discussion, as we all wanted.

The presentation took a little longer than I expected. After 10 minutes into this talk, I was lost and I merely counted the minutes. And each minute seemed longer than the last one. On the bright side, there was the raffle to look forward to, especially the handheld radio. By the time we got to the raffle, it was almost 9:30pm. That, too, dragged on as there were a number of small items being raffled off. I waited in anticipation for the final draw -- the radio. Unfortunately, none of my 12 numbers was called. It was over. I picked up my chair, and another, and stacked them against the rack, before I headed out into the cold night.

Till next year..... 73 es dit-dit.