In lieu of the most competitive and exciting match-ups in NBA playoff history, here are 3 short videos from Kobe and Shaq, Lebron and KG, Dwight and CP3 A sweet preview of what’s going to happen starting April 19th when the NBA Playoffs officially begin! Just click on the pictures to go to the video

NEVER in it’s glorious history has there even been a race this tight. There are 1 or 2 games that separate the number one seed from number six seed in the West to date. It might also mark the first time in NBA history that a team with 50 wins will NOT make the playoffs! That’s the price you pay for being in the ultra-powerful Western Conference I guess. It is also, in my opinion, going to be one of the closest MVP races in NBA history. Any of these 5 players have a good chance of winning the award this season. You have CP3, Kobe, KG, Lebron, and Steve Nash. Your guess is as good as mine, but my sentimental pick is CP3, and my hands-down pick is Kobe. I think it is finally HIS time.

Click HERE for the current playoff standings and the playoff picture for the teams fighting for their lives right this moment.

This is the second longest running game show EVER, behind only the Price is Right (1972)! It first aired in 1975 (I wasn’t even born yet), and went prime-time in 1983. Ever since I started watching this show, it has always been a dream of mine to be a contestant. I wanted to do Jeopardy too, but I know I’d never win that game, so I’ll stick to the ones I have a chance in

In any case, there is now a Wheel of Fortune game show in the Philippines and it must have been airing for the past… 4 months (I think) and is hosted by Kris Aquino. I’m writing about it because my fiancee became part of the show as one of the contestants and she won! We had the taping for the show last Friday, and it aired 3 days after on Monday, which was a holiday here. The experience was amazing, and the 5 and a half hours of waiting for it to start, was well worth it. We brought home a good amount of money, and a PSP too! But more importantly, it was more than worth it for the pride of having been on TV and actually winning!

I found the set very professional looking and very well made. The board looked amazing. The puzzles here though, especially the ones in the bonus round, are very difficult. Compared to the usual game in the US, this one is much harder because you would never know if the answer is in English or Tagalog! Then again, it takes much more skill to be able to win here, except I really find the way they handle contestants here kind of distasteful. They force you to shout “BANKRUPT! LOSE A TURN!” every single time the wheel is spun, and it gets really annoying and seems quite class-less. I told my fiancee not to make a fool of herself like that, but she went over and above that. She not only conducted herself very well on the show… but she killed the competition and won with class

Everyone was asking me how she joined. I told them we both joined at the same time, and you just need to text the dedicated number your personal details, and then the computer will pick randomly who to screen for the show. She’s quite lucky as she’s been called already for 3 game shows, and appeared on 2 of them! I, on the other hand, have NEVER been called! Oh well   That last picture up there was the puzzle for the bonus round.  It turned out that it was for 400,000 pesos but she wasn’t able to solve it… and neither could I

I’m not one to shy away from saying that I love Mariah Carey’s songs… though I used to enjoy the older ones more. The sentimental songs she had back then (Hero, Love Takes Time, Endless Love) I think fits her voice better compared to the hip-hop party pop songs she has these days, but that’s just me. Her “Music Box” album was just one of the best full compilation of new songs I can remember. I’m not sure how many albums she has that has hit number 1, but I know it’s quite a lot. So let’s see if this new one brings her to number 1 yet again.

I have always been a prankster, and I love a good laugh whether it’s on myself or someone else… as long as it isn’t personal, harmful, or perverse, like that picture down there of the biggest squirrel ever killed by army guys! And since it IS April Fool’s Day, I just had to do something So I took the liberty of trying to fool 4 of my officemates telling them I have resigned from the company effective today. These are friends that I have told about being offered a better deal by another company 3 weeks ago, and that I had seriously been considering it.

So I sent them an email on my resignation at 9AM, and put on cc my direct manager and the local managing director, but using phony email addresses, so it would come out more genuine. As these 4 good friends of mine (PB, TZ, MB, CG) kept convincing me not to leave last week, I thought it would be a good old joke! I also pranked this same group 2 months ago (hehe), so they’re kind of irritated that I got them twice now and I’m going to be paying for this one!

First surprise, my regional buddy (who is my product lead) called me this morning and was so annoyed, his first words to me were “JO, WHAT DID YOU DO???” I had messaged him yesterday that I had declined the offer already. Apparently, he didn’t get it! So he immediately called the regional big boss after forwarding my phony resignation email! Before he could say anything else after that, I told him “Happy April Fool’s!” and there was dead silence. Hehe. He said that the Philippines is more “americanized” compared to other countries in Asia Pacific, which was why he took it seriously and didn’t even realize it was an April Fool’s prank! Whoops! We’re good now though, I’ll give him a kiss tomorrow hehe Sorry EK!

Second surprise, I didn’t realize that sending a bogus email on my resignation to 4 friends of mine, would merit more than 10 people calling me within the company and outside of it. Apparently, it turned out to be a really big deal, so I immediately sent the 4 of them a message telling them it was just an April Fool’s Day joke! Of course, the two guys called me right away and started swearing at me and telling me they’d get back at me for sure. I fear, i fear!

But in the end, the joke didn’t quite have a good lasting feeling. I didn’t quite realize it could have turned out to be a really bad joke… so for this April Fool’s… the joke’s on me!