More winners and losers

Winner: the UST Salinggawi Dance Troupe, for coming in 1st in the UAAP Cheering Competition for the 4th year in a row. They weren’t as outstanding as last year (UP was 2nd by a very slim 0.20 margin), but they were still pretty amazing. My sister takes solace in her school’s excellence in cheering, since they haven’t excelled in basketball since our dad was team manager 8 years ago. :p

Loser: the Ateneo cheerdancers, for dropping to 7th place from last year’s respectable 4th, with a lame, boring routine that in my opinion should have come in last. At least NU looked like they were trying to be creative.

Winner: Cinderella Man, which has Oscar written all over it for Ron Howard and his knockout cast (Russell and Renee delivered solid performances, but it was Paul Giamatti’s acting range that surprised and impressed me). Compared to other Oscar-nominated movies about boxing (Million Dollar Baby, Ali and The Hurricane), this one takes the heavyweight title in entertainment value and emotional appeal.

Loser: the guy sitting two seats away from me in the movie theater, for refusing to shut his trap throughout the entire film. I don’t know, maybe he wanted to sound intelligent, or his wife was really, really stupid, because he insisted on explaining each plot point to her like she was a 5-year-old. The only thing worse would have been if they had brought a noisy 5-year-old with them.

Winner: me, for bagging one of two cordless phones (with built-in radio and alarm clock!) during our annual Go cousins’ mooncake dice game (Kevin won the other one just one turn before me, haha). And my mom’s even letting me install the phone in my room. The funny thing is, this prize is 10 years late: during my high school years I would have loved to have my own phone, but now my telebabad days are pretty much history, save for the occasional marathon phone conversation with Maddy. ;)

Loser: UE, for failing to overcome La Salle in their rematch yesterday. We were counting on them to clean up our mess, but apparently we left them with more than they could handle. So now we are losers together, and we are also forced to play each other to determine 3rd place this Thursday. Really, does anyone still care whether we go up against FEU or DLSU? Either way, we're dead meat.

Winner: La Salle, for nabbing 2nd place in team standings, thereby securing a twice-to-beat advantage in the Final Four. Even the most diehard Atenean has to concede (albeit grudgingly) that the Archers earned it in convincing fashion. FEU should be mighty concerned.

Loser: the first ever ACET essay questions, simply for being downright ridiculous. I mean, yeah, I see the point of adding an essay portion to test how students write under pressure (and as a safeguard against plagiarized application essays, hah). But if the topics are as broad and vague as the usefulness of computers and the effects of children living apart from their parents, then it’s just making a big joke out of the ACET. That, and punishing the faculty volunteers who actually have to read the answers to those stupid questions. Enjoy, Sir Tirol. ;p