I'm not a real bookworm. In fact, I sucked at my Reading and Literature classes back in school. When something that sparks my interest though, I can be glued to my books like I can't bring the book down.

Over the past week, I got an itch or obsession to buy myself a new book. Two weeks ago at Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street, I browsed through a non-covered copy Sports Illustrated's "The Basketball Book" while waiting for Rocky to shop. Immediately I was sold to the book, but I was cautious of my budget. Rocky and I debated on whether getting the non-covered/sealed copy or not and I held on to the book like a kid for 30 minutes while she was browsing for her books. She asked me if it would bother me at home not getting a copy. I felt it would bother, yes, but I wouldn't be satisfied with the book's condition. Finally, I gave in and decided not to get the book, thinking there might be a better and sealed copy elsewhere.

Throughout the rest of the week, I ate dinner at malls with big bookstores. Dropped by Best Seller's in Galleria, Powerbooks in Shangri-La, and Fully Booked shops in Shangri-La and Promenade in Green Hills, but no luck in finding that basketball book. To satisfy the urge, I bought instead a sealed copy of WWE wrestler Edge's (Adam Copeland) autobiography. Edge's book is one in my to-buy list after reading Chris Jericho's autobiography, but I haven't seen any good and sealed copies in thebook shops. I thought about it over dinner while I was at GH, but finally relented to buying the book. What makes it special is it's written by him personally, and not from some WWE ghost writer.

Last Wednesday, riding high on Ginebra's victory over Rain or Shine PBA Fiesta Conference semi-finals game at Araneta Coliseum, Virgil and I dropped by Fully Booked in Gateway. I wasn't expecting anything at that point and it was an innocent visit to the book store, but lo and behold what unfolded in front of me: a sealed (covered) and mint copy of the Baskeball Book. My jaw dropped, I held the copy and I held on to it like a kid with a new Christmas present. Of course I had a little dilemma with the previous purchase I did a day ago (Edge's autobiography) but thank God for credit card. At least for the whole month of July, a significant part of my savings went to two books.




I instantly fell in love with the images inside the Sports Illustrated's Basketball book while browsing through the book in Fully Booked. Lots of pictures, stories, bits and trivia everywhere. I browse through it from time to time at home, in the meantime I'm still reading Edge's autobiography.




Meanwhile, Edge's autobiography is a light and good read. Written by Edge himself while recuperating from his major neck injury (two dislocated discs), the book discusses Edge's early days and his journey to learning to wrestle, his wrestling days and rock 'n roll adventures. The book is too light unlike Bret's autobiography which is a little too tragic and serious. It's like Edge speaking to the reader in a candid and humorous way. A major chunk of the book discusses Edge's heyday in the WWF back in the "Attitude" Era where he tagged up with longtime childhood friend Jay ("Christian") and those rivalry with the Hardys, etc. I must admit though that I didn't follow the Attitude Era that much because of too much sex and violence (I was a good kid, damn) and I lost interest in wrestling at that time (the wrestling era I knew was Bret's time). Hopefully I'll get hold of Edge's early matches when I get my copy of my WWE videos. The Edge I know of right now is the "Rated R" superstar who once did "live sex" with Lita (woohoo!), rivaled with John Cena a lot of times, and french kissed Vicky Guerrero for on live TV for the love of the wrestling gods out there.




Certainly great additions to my basketball/wrestling library. I don't know what next wrestling book pick-up will be as I don't intend to buy every wrestling book available (I go for honesty and not a bunch of cover-ups like the Shawn Michaels book). I hope to expand my basketball books with the NBA, as I have a head start too with the Magic Johnson autobiography (which I wrote about too in this blog's early days).
Two days, two books from two different shops for two thousand pesos. Now I have to save up. :-|

My Blue Eagles fanatic friends can't hold their excitement as college basketball season is just around the corner. I can't believe it myself how time flies so fast, it was just like yesterday when my college alma mater won the UAAP crown last year. I jokingly told Rocky that the upcoming UAAP wars is a reminder how old I am in my current job. hahaha. It's half meant actually, part of me wants to push the upcoming UAAP season away because it reminds me I'm old!

I was browsing through my pictures tonight as I saw my picture with Rocky back in the Ateneo-UST finals game 1. Kinda looked back a bit, but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm excited for UAAP. Had to search for videos in YouTube to remember memorable games that I watched. Searched some of the blog entries I wrote over the past four seasons (this blog is OLD too). My basketball infested mind (among other things) can't recall everything.

Teka! Ginebra's fighting off Rain or Shine in the PBA Fiesta Conference playoffs!




2005 was the year I introduced Rocky to basketball, but she fell in love with Ateneo rather than my PBA team Ginebra. Ateneo still had Japeth Aguilar and LA Tenorio and first-time coach Norman Black. However, Ateneo succumbed to DLSU with their drop-out and PEP-test players. FEU eventually won the crown after that Salgado "batok-sabay-takbo" incident.





DLSU served its suspension and Ateneo lorded over UAAP. Watched all but two games. The trio of Escalona-Kramer-and Intal pushed Ateneo to the top spot, but eventually succumbed to the heartbreaking loss against UST (tell me about it). I was raving the entire year because of Ateneo's winning ways, only to find myself disappointed in the end. Good thing Ginebra copped the Philippine cup months later :P





The "SUS" season. Still reeling from the loss the season before, Rocky and I followed the Blue Eagles as far as Rizal Coliseum in Manila. Ateneo had a good run (including cardiac games and buzzer beaters) but lost in that crucial game against NU. Meanwhile, UE swept the UAAP Elims, and Ateneo and La Salle met for a record 5 times, including three in the playoffs. Ford Arao and Chris Tiu carried the team, including Chris Tiu's end game magic. While Ateneo won 3 times against DLSU, however DLSU won in the game which mattered the most. DLSU went on to beat UE as they boasted "from suspensions to champions." (Funny how they feel vindicated -- they were guilty of fielding in ineligible players and in all aspects, they deserved to be suspended the season before. But they couldn't get over it. :P)





Chris Tiu's final year with Ateneo and Rabeh's dominating UAAP performance, with amazing rookie Ryan Buenafe leading the charge for Ateneo. Couldn't believe it myself that Ateneo almost swept the UAAP games. I wasn't able to follow the Blue Eagles by heart, as I was downed by big deadlines at work, and I was following Ginebra more than Ateneo in the PBA (if you ask me which victory is sweeter, I'd say it's Ginebra's win. Followed each game in the playoffs closely despite my busy schedule. Heck I weeped in the last game too bwahaha). Ateneo eventually won it against DLSU 4 > 0. That was for the losing streak Ateneo had against DLSU from 2004 to 2005! The Maierhofer finger gave a bad taste in my mouth as I thought "what the hell was the referee thinking." The game would have been more exciting had the referee let that mysterious finger go but what the heck. Ateneo finally won after 6 years! Yebah! Oh, a memorable roller-coaster season too for Bit and Gots! :D

***
No, I'm not yet excited about the UAAP season. :P I don't want to feel old yet. But signs of the times lead me to it. Must... fight... it! :P UAAP is 3 weeks away!

Because I needed a little space on my PC, I decided to do a marathon of sorts of the cartoon series stored in my PC. As of today, I'm done!

First up was TMNT: Fast Forward. Nothing much out of the cartoons except the turtles' adventures in 2105. Kinda stereotypical TMNT adventure, I definitely liked the previous seasons way better.

Next was I finished season 1 of "Wolverine and the X-Men." Time and again, I've ranted about this cartoon since it's adding up to the hype Wolverine is getting (plus all the attention that he's getting) when in fact the X-Men IS a team and Wolverine's part of the team -- it should have been plainly "X-Men." Also, I'm not comfortable with Wolverine and Cyclops seemingly exchanging personalities that Wolverine is the boy-scout team leader while Cyclops is the lonely rebel. And ugh, they brought back Cyclops' emo side that's so attached to Jean Grey. I did like the last few episodes when it was revealed that Emma has a liking for Cyclops, plus the throwback to the first five X-Men. Save for Wolverine leading the X-Men, I love the story. Can't wait for season 2 which will give a glimpse of the "Age of Apocalypse"

Lastly, I've spent almost two weeks to finish all episodes of "X-Men Evolution." This gives me a better appreciation for my X-Men Evolution Cyclops action figures! The setting is a bit weird and the constant clashes between the Brotherhood and the X-Men, but things turned out great at the start of Season 3 when mutants were finally unveiled to the public! At least this cartoon series has less focus on Wolverine, plus equal treatment among the X-Men members. I finished half of season 3 and all of season 4. Love the plot and the stories. Fanboy moments include: the original X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Beast, Angel, Iceman) in a mission in London, the "New Mutants" roster (Wolfsbane, Cannonball, Sunspot, Magma, etc.) a full Cyclops-centric episode in "Blind Alley" and no jealous Logan to spoil Cyclops-Jean Grey romance. haha. Professor X's visions of the future toward the end of Season 4 suggest X-Men-themed stories like Phoenix Saga, Ultimate X-Men, etc. There's just a lot of fan boy moments that makes me appreciate the entire cartoon series, yey. :D

Hooray for cartoons. :P

I'm catching up on my TMNT: Fast Forward episodes lately. The opening scenes in Episode 24 (The Cosmic Completist) were so funny, I heard myself laughing alone in the wee hours of the morning. Just means I can totally relate, hahaha! I even had to retype the whole conversation just to post it in here:

***


Mikey: *tells stories to Cody Jones using his action figures collection*

Raph: *grabs the action figure from Mikey*

Mikey: *screams* Are you busted in the brain? That's a serious one WebWire variant in near excellent condition!

Raph: I made you a burger so the two of you can fly off to geekland. And the tincan (Serling) can clean the penthouse.

Mikey: *talks to Cody* Ignore him Cody, he has no appreciation for a good sculpt, and 39 points of articulation!

Raph: Of all the things you can save from the lair, you have to save this junk?

Cody: I think it's cool

Raph: It's stupid. I mean look at this one. What's the point of buying a doll if you never take it out of the package. *Grabs Mikey's MOC Cosmic action figure*

Mikey: THAT'S MINT ON THE CARD! AND IT'S AN ACTION FIGURE! NOT A DOLL! GIMME!

***
You just gotta love those turtles. hahaha. By the way, Mikey's MOC figure got burned eventually when an Inuwashi Gunjin crashed Cody's place and asked for help. Nice.

I'm on leave due to stomach problems, that's why I took time to clean-up my PC files.

I'm cleaning my scattered desktop files stored in various folders on my desktop. While cleaning them up, I realized that it's just funny that my files have grown a bit significantly since I got into toy collecting. I have pictures of:

* custom references
* eBay finds
* customized figures finds from all over
* toys references
* toy hauls pictures (for forums posting)
* trial shots (in my pho-toy studio)
* "hauls" shots of toys that arrived in the office

Somehow, a mini-flashback occurred, and I recalled each moment of excitement and overwhelm when I got those figures.

Hooray for toy collecting :-)