O Hai Gais! Let’s talk about Jesus!

Most people who know me are aware of the fact that I am not a big believer in organized religion. On paper however, I am a Catholic and might I daresay a rather well learned one at that. I did spend 4 years in the seminary a whole lifetime ago, when I was much younger and when I honestly believed I would be a priest. That was followed by another 4 years in a catholic university run by Jesuits. That said, while my faith isn’t particularly ablaze, I did maintain a passion for Catholicism mostly as an academic endeavor. It follows then that when I come question my own unbelief, I often approach the Catholic faith to try and see if anything it offers might spark something.

Which is why I sometimes find myself in some Catholic Chat Room discussing theology with people who have much stronger faith than I can ever hope to have. Incidentally, I’ve been given the opportunity to review Catholic Chat City, a relatively new online meeting ground for Catholics. Aesthetically, I appreciate the minimalistic design. The layout is fairly clean and most of the functionalities are pretty intuitive. It runs on Flash but the site is surprisingly fast although the few people who are still on dial up may experience a bit of a problem. Profile creation is a straightforward affair and uploading pics are quite easy. It doesn’t offer profile customization though but I don’t think it’s a crucial feature for an online community chat site.

What matters more is the quality of the conversations you engage in. It was a pleasant surprise that although the community isn’t really that big yet, the people I’ve encountered so far have been very open minded and level headed. Most of my past experiences in Catholic Chat have been marked by me being bible thumped and judged like crazy by people who ironically know less about Catholicism than I do. Catholic Chat City’s small but growing community has so far been quite accepting of different opinions and that often leads to enjoyably intelligent discussions. This I believe is their key strength and I do hope the community can maintain this kind of quality in the future.

Poker Nights are Pokertastic! New Addiction Imminent!

It all started when Sabs of The Filipino Poker Tour (or FPT for short) and Pokerstars asked me to help them organize a poker tournament for bloggers. They got in touch with me a bit late and I didn’t have a lot of time really and I was unable to market the event in a manner that would be satisfactory to me but because I operate on a level of awesome, I was still able to get a sufficient number of bloggers to attend. So as things were, I found myself at the Metro Card Club in Metrowalk last Wednesday together with a merry bunch of fellow bloggers. I was glad to see a strong showing from the i.ph community as the Virus, Wits, Cai, Ade, Ozy, Maricris, JP and the Bim made an appearance. We were joined by Rico, Joni, Helga, Jayvee, Phoebe and my favorite cousin Gab. The tournament that evening was a special event for media folk and i’d like to pause for a moment to acknowledge that this was one of the very first local events to put bloggers on the same footing as their traditional media counterparts. 

The players were comprised mostly of poker newbies such as myself, save a few exceptions. It was the first time for most of us to play tournament style poker and it was fortunate that there was a brief tutorial on how to play No Limit Hold ‘em before the games started. Soon enough, the cards were being dealt and we were playing poker. Bouyed by a combination of what little poker skills I have, a bit of luck and a lot of liquid courage, (Absolut Vodka courtesy of Gab.) I somehow found myself at the final table, with a decent amount of chips to boot. A few hands later, only the Bim, Gab, another blogger named Bruce (whose blog I am yet to find out) and the Mordo were left. I was, at that point already harboring hopes of taking home the top prize of PhP10,000. That was of course until the Bim (that ass) busted me out. Gab was next to bow out and then Bruce and Bim went head to head in an ADMU vs DLSU showdown!

Unlike the UAAP basketball finals however, Bim went on to win the final hand to become the first ever FPT Media Tournament Champion. Bim and I usually play home games with our cohorts from The Man Blog and it was the first time he ever beat me. But yeah, you win some and you lose some. It didn’t suck too bad really. I took home a bit of cash and more importantly, I won a seat to the FPT5 worth PhP11,000, slated that coming Saturday, where the top prize was a whopping PhP2,000,000!!! 

So three days later, I was at the Metro Card Club once again. This time, I would be going up against seasoned poker players, veterans of many cash games, regular online players on Pokerstars and repeat participants of the Filipino Poker Tour. And there were over 320 of them. To win the money, I had to beat every single one of them. To say that I was out of my league was an understatement. Armed only with what little experience I had, some serious research on effective No Limit Hold’em tactics and Necks, my lucky stuffed brontosaurus, I set myself up to try and win me some big money. As to be expected, I was the only newbie at my table, a fact that I stupidly did nothing to hide from my competition. I played tight and aggresive, stealing a few good pots here and there, growing my chip stack slowly but steadily. Surprisingly enough, I managed to hang on for quite a while, even sending a few of these seasoned veterans out of the game. Necks was doing his job pretty well. I was getting good cards at regular intervals and I stuck to my strategy of playing extremely tight and only moderately aggresive. The open declaration of this being only my second tournament even played to my advantage a bit as the pros couldn’t seem to figure me out. My constant conversations with a stuffed animal only added to their confusion.

Necks, my lucky stuffed dinosaur 

On one notable hand, I had a suited 3 and 5, not something you should normally bet with. But a lot of the players called and the pot grew quickly. One of them made a move to steal the pot with a huge raise. There were folds all around. I had a pretty sizable chip stack then and I wanted to see the flop, thinking I might stand a chance of hitting a flush draw. Instead, it turned out to be a 2, 4,  6, rainbow. I didn’t get my flush, but I hit me a nice straight on the flop. He raised aggresively then, which got me thinking he had a high pocket pair, possibly kings or aces. I decided to slow play him for more money so I just called. The turn was a 9. At that point, he goes all in. I call. He shows us his pocket aces. I smile and show him my straight. The river turned out to be inconsequential. He was drawing dead. He left the table in a huff and was the only player I busted out who didn’t bother to shake my hand. I didn’t mind too much. I just more than doubled my stack. Starting with 11,000 in chips, I was already up to about 60,000 and I was told by the other pros that I was doing exceptionally well for a newbie. One of them even refused to believe that it was only my second tournament ever. 

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Why it’s Good to be the Mordo (even if he does have to play catch up because he hasn’t been blogging as often as he should.)

I rebooted this blog with every intention of updating it with better regularity and while I am now blogging with more frequency, I must admit that I’ve left a lot of blog worthy events remain unblogged. It’s a shame really, because these said events are awesome. For that reason, I will now attempt to write a few short words about some of them. On a positive note, at least it prevents you from feeling too jealous. Yep, it’s good to be the Mordo.

September 5, 2008 - SMB Oktoberfest

Our awesome friend Juned hooked The Sexynomad and I with media passes to the massive event which allowed us access to the entire venue. This included a special media section where a free buffet and free drinks awaited us. More importantly, we were able to get seats right in front of the main stage. There, we got to watch The Overtones, who were surprisingly good and Taken by Cars, who were awkward but entertaining. Then we got to have our faces rocked off by the new Rivermaya. Trust me on this, new Rivermaya + old Rivermaya songs  = face blasting awesomeness! Next up on were The Bloomfields who did not seem to understand that they were just an opening act and overstayed their welcome on stage with a ridiculously long set that was, quite frankly, not even very good. Thankfully, they were followed by The Out of Body Special who easily got the crowd’s energy levels back up. Their set was short and sweet and honestly could have stood to be a bit longer. But they understood perfectly that the audience could hardly wait for the main act. And what a main act it was! Third Eye Blind just blew me away. All I can say is you really should have been there.  To round off the evening, Jen and I tried out the limited edition Oktoberfest San Miguel Pale Pilsen. I liked it, full bodied with sweet undertones, but I prefer San Miguel All Malt Premium Brew which is crisper and packs more of a kick. Jen and I only stayed until around 2:00AM but we had an amazing time.
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I Am Not Mike "Fucking" Villar! But He Sure is Getting my Vote!

I’ve been using  the monicker "Adam Mordo" since college, long before I started blogging. "Adam Mordo" is a pseudo pseudonym, meaning I’ve never used it to hide my true identity. I mean that’s kinda difficult to do when I use my fricking name in my URL. That however not enough to prevent a confusion that arose a while back, where some people who apparently lacked any common sense, thought that "Adam Mordo" was in fact Mike "Fucking" Villar. In fact, in one anti-Mike Villar site, "Adam Mordo" is listed Mike’s alias. This got me a little peeved of course but that’s all in the past. The matter has been pretty much cleared up. What I’d really like to point out is the fct thaat for as long as I’ve known Mike Villar, and I’ve known him for quite a while, he has never used an alias. A fact that becomes impressive when you consider what he’s written about. And it goes way beyond the hilarious irreverence of the Atrocities of Friendster Series. He unabashedly shares his numerous social faux pas, how he despises and lusts for his shrink in nearly equal measure and conversations with his upposedly miniscule penis. That is in itself enough to earn Mike my vote for the Bloggers’ Choice at this year’s Philippine Blog Awards Fuck, it ought to be enough to earn your vote as well.

But there’s much more to his blog than the chronicle of  "an overweight 26-year-old man who has a menagerie of mental and emotional dysfunctions that range from anxiety to borderline psychosis." (His words, not mine.) What sets his blog apart from exceptional bravery or sheer lack of shame is the incrdible intelligence behind it. Let it not be said that Mike is just another twenty-something blogger whining his way across cyberspace. His articles are always impeccably written and well thought off. Of all the nominees, Mike is arguably the best writer, closely contested only by Bim. Heck, I’ll go ahead and just say it, Mike is one of only a few people who I’ll openly admit to be a better writer than I am. 

The man has a seemingly effortless grasp of humor and has consistently given me a ton of LOLs throughout the years. And then, of course there is the often times shocking sincerity in his posts. As one of the people fortunate enough to actually call him friend,  I can let you in on a little secret, most of what you read on his site is true. I won’t tell you which is creative embelishment. Figure it out for yourelf and trust me, you’ll enjoy his blog more thoroughly. 

I set out to write a post mocking him as only a friend can and would but the more I thought about why Mike deserves to win this, I the more I felt that a serious tone would be better suited to the cause, because quite frankly, there aren’t enough bloggers like Mr. Vilar.

I am hardly alone in my estimation. Here’s what other people have to say about Mike Villar:

Lauren’s Vote For Mike Villar
Pau’s Vote For Mikey
Baddie’s I Believe In Mike Villar
Fritz’s My Vote Goes To Mike Villar
Euri’s Philippine Web Awards 2008
Helga Votes for Mike
Jepoy Votes for Mike
Madz for Mikey!
Liz’s vote
Ozy’s Why Mike Should Win
Marcus declares that he votes for Mike “Fucking” Villar
Noelle wants Mike to be a REAL Internet Star and get rid of “Rising”
Juice’s vote goes to Mr. Villar!
Steel thinks that Mikey is Badassery Personified
Jayvee Sacramento votes for Mike
Alohapenny votes for Mike!
Joel’s vote goes to Mikey!
Wits votes for Manny, er, Mike Villar!
Mara for Mike!
Michelle chooses Mike
Anne wants Mike to become president

The Philippine Blog Awards is brought to you in part by:

Level Up! Games
Nokia
Blog Bank
Smart Communications
Josiah’s Catering
Rsun Technology Store
Yahoo
XFM 92.3
Buddy Gancencia Reality TV
Ultravision Photo and Video
Click Booth
Aloha Board Sports
Sheero Media Solutions
YourPinoyBroker.com
Belo Medical Group
Inquirer.Net
Toshiba
ROAM Magazine
PLDT

It Sounds Funny But I’ll Say it Anyway

Up until the last minute, I hadn’t any idea that I would end up going to the Eraserheads reunion concert. I had purposely left myself out of the mad scramble for tickets and the clamor for VIP passes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan. They did after all provide a sizable portion of the soundtrack to my high school and college life. I guess for me that was more than enough, to keep them in the realm of nostalgia. What I hadn’t banked on was how much bigger a fan my wife was. Busy as she was, wind of the concert eventually reached her, so at around midnight, the first few minutes of the date of the concert, I found myself trying to get decent tickets to what I predicted to be a mammoth event. I asked my good friend Juned if he could get me in but alas, he’s given away the last of his free passes. I called and texted friends asking much of the same to no avail. I then hurried home to get some sleep as I intended to be at a ticketworld outlet at the soonest possible time.

I woke up late in the afternoon and panicked my way to National Bookstore in ATC, stood in line anxiously and after over an hour had in my hands 2 patron tickets. I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing full well that my sex life was no longer in jeopardy. I rushed home to find my wife practically ready. I showered and got dressed and we were off.

Finding parking turned out to be a bit of a battle. Even my incredible driving skills were tested to near its limits, something which rarely ever happens. After 45 minutes of fighting traffic, I eventually found us a spot. Not the most ideal, no where near close, but ultimately acceptable. The walk to the Fort open field from Serendra wasn’t so bad but felt a bit like an exodus of sorts as we were walking with a throng of people. Considering that we were already late and a majority of the people ought to be already inside the venue, I could predict that the place would be packed to ridiculous extremes. 

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On the Female Reproductive System

It seems to go against reason that I would be in a seminar at the very chi chi Mi Piace Barolo Frascati room At the Peninsula Manila, much more if the seminar in question was about the prevention of cervical cancer when it is a manner of simple deduction that I do not posses a cervix. That however was exactly where I was last Friday and no, it actually doesn’t go against common sense why I would attend such an event. First of all, it’s all about preventing cervical cancer or in terms that most of my readers (yes, you three.) would understand, the preservation of punani. Now tell me, how could I NOT get behind a cause like that? Second reason should be apparent, the seminar would be attended mostly by women. Factor in the rules of probability coupled with my insane luck, I should, and was eventually surrounded by a bevy of beautiful women. Sure, I am one of the most happily married guys you could meet having a wife this hot! (see, I told you I was insanely lucky.) It doesn’t of course mean that I do not enjoy the general feminine aesthetic. Anyway, we also got a free dinner which was absolutely superb. (The veal was to die for!) I mean, when you really think about it, the real question is why WEREN’T you there?

 Some of the pretty women who were there

Anyway, while I may have gone for what can be argued by some as all the wrong reasons, the seminar was actually an eye opener for me. The speaker, Dr. Ricardo Manalastas M.D. of PGH was very informative and was far more entertaining than you would expect anyone who was talking about cervical cancer.

 Dr. Manalastas, saves lives, sees more punani than I do 

The most important things that I learned are:

• every single case of cervical cancer is preceded by an infection of the humanpapilloma virus. (HPV)

• For over 2 years, an incredibly safe and extremely effective vaccine has been available in the country.

• PAP smears save lives, and women should start getting one at least once a year once they become sexually active.

• Not enough people know about the 3 points above.

 Here’s how it is. If all cases of cervical cancer starts out with an HPV infection and the said HPV infection can be safely and easily prevented by a shot to the arm of vaccine, then this particular cancer shouldn’t be as prevalent as it is today. Figures are sketchy at best, this being a third world country after all, but roughly 10 Filipinas die of cervical cancer every fucking day! That’s 70 women a week! Taking probability into account once more, plotting every one of them as either ugly or beautiful, then it follows that at least 50% of those women will be hot. That’s 35 beautiful women a week! Yes, like all cancers, cervical cancer does not discriminate against physical attractiveness. Seriously though, the best thing you can do is tell all the women in your life, if you care about them at all, to ask about HPV and getting vaccinated the next time they see their OB/GYNs and to convince them that the next time be reasonably soon. Why? Because cancer is never a laughing matter. Now get to it! The Mordo wills it!

Yet another beginning…

And I’m not just talking about my blog. I’ve made a couple of major changes in my life and it is both exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

For starters, since mid July, I have relinquished my position as the product manager for i.PH. You may have heard about it from other sources but this will be the first time I’ll be going into it with a bit more detail. The most important thing I need to say is that it was a heartwrenching decision for me. Over the years, I’ve grown to love i.PH and more importantly, the community of bloggers who use it, a community which, I’d like to believe, I played a hand in cultivating. I remain proud of the fact that the community has not only grown but has actually grown closer.  I have also had the good fortune to work with some really amazing people, some of whom I might have actually "discovered."

So why did I leave? Unfortunately, the answer would be much too long and convoluted for a blog post. Suffice it to say that my vision was no longer in alignment with the decision makers in the company and I no longer felt happy in my position. I know that that answer is unsatisfying but it would be tasteless for me to spell it out here. Buy me a beer sometime and maybe I’ll tell you face to face, in confidence of course.

So what now? Well, I have, like my gorgeous wife, taken a life working from home and I have to say it is quite satisfying. More importantly, I am, together with some of the most impressive minds in the industry, in the early stages of putting up several very promising business endeavors. I can’t let too much out of the bag at this point but watch this space and I’ll keep you updated.

Is that it? In a word, no. Not by a longshot. One of the best things about my change in lifestyle is that I actually have to blog again. Ironic as it may seem that I could hardly blog when I was the product manager of a blogging service, the truth is I was then more concerned with making sure that the i.PH bloggers have an enjoyable blogging experience. (To all the i.PHers out there, It’s great to be one of you now. I certainly hope to run into any of you folks one of these days. I hope you will lend me as much support now as you did when I was still working for you. hehe.)  So yeah, blogging became a bit of an afterthought which was a sacrifice for me because odd as it might sound, I actually happen to enjoy blogging. So you can expect this place to be much better updated than it’s been for a really long time. Who knows, this time, I might actually end up being quite good at it.