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I have this routine of shelling out P60 every other week for  6/45 Lotto tickets. Hey, you’ll never know right? Who cares if the odds are impossible.

I remember back in high school, we would pass around an empty Selecta ice cream can once a week. One of my classmates would then use the money we gathered for Lotto tickets. Any winnings we would get from this exercise  would then be used for the purchase of a “Dboys” compound. That’s just how close we all are. Pretty soon we all got tired of it and turned it into a “Piso para kay Cuervo” donation can. Anyway…

I think winning the Lotto is always on top of the list when it comes to all those what ifs. After placing another bet just this Sunday, I thought of coming up with a list of what I would immediately spend the money on if I won a hundred million bucks.

I would immediately spend on the following:

Family

1. A new townhouse or condo for my parents - Why? Because our house is just too damn big for all of us. I would get them a place near our current place, just so they won’t miss any of their friends here.
2. A new Mitsubishi Pajero for my dad - When I was in 3rd year college, our Pajero got stolen near church. Since then, we’ve sworn off getting any “hot” vehicles. It would be great to surprise him with some car keys.
3. An around the world trip for the whole family - Even including my immediate family in the US. I don’t even remember when we last did this. I’d make the trip a month long. With outlet store shopping on every stop. And videogames.
4. A Jollibee or McDonalds - So no one from my family will ever have to work again. Nuff said.

Part II of this post tomorrow (that post will include all the toys).

From Alvin Jimenez

That watch on the left, is a painful reminder of why I’ve sworn off expensive watches. In 2nd year high school you see, while practicing for my high school basketball team, my “Tag” got stolen.

The watch was bought by my dad in Hong Kong on a family trip to Hong Kong two weeks earlier. He was about to purchase an Elysee watch for myself (I know right, WTH is that), when I insisted on getting the Tag Heuer watch instead. Even though I wasn’t really into watches, I just felt like I wanted the silver Tag more. And though it was a little bit more insisted, my dad agreed.

Basketball practice usually lasted for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. I always dressed up near the restrooms, and there was a small (unguarded) area in the covered courts where me and my teammates would place our things.

On that specific day before practice, I carefully took off my watch and buried it under my books, notebooks, and other school stuff. I don’t usually put my valuables in the same place all the time, and I even had a separate bag for my basketball gear. Since I wasn’t driving yet, I also had the luxury of sleeping in the car after a tiring practice.

You can just imagine how many times I turned my bag inside out when I got home once I found out the watch was missing. It was even more difficult it was to tell my dad about what had happened (I ended up telling him at least  6 months after the watch was stolen).

Will I ever get one again? If I was financially capable now, I guess I would. I would get the exact same watch. But then again, I guess this was one of the turning points in my life that made me develop a “do I need this?” mentality before buying anything expensive.

No matter how deep those bag pockets are, you’ll never know when these things will just get, “snatched” away.

From Alvin Jimenez

More than a year has passed since I jumped out of bed to rush to Fort Bonifacio to catch a glimpse of Kobe Bryant. I said I wouldn’t, but on the eve of his 2nd visit to Manila, I found myself scrambling for passes to any of his planned appearances. Fanboy-ism makes you do things you didn’t know you were capable of doing.

Thanks to some of my friends in Summit Media, I was lucky enough to score a few passes to Kobe Bryant’s private workout at the Ultra. I was already on my way to pick up my tickets when another friend asked me if I wanted to go to his 2pm appearance at Nike Park in Bonifacio High Street. I immediately called, and in the next half hour, found myself driving all the way to the Nike office in Rufino Tower in Makati.

Special passes. You don’t call em’ special for nothing.

When I arrived at Nike Park in Bonifacio High Street, people had already enveloped the small setup they had there. The sheer number of Kobe Bryant gear had almost made me feel guilty I was just wearing the shirt off my back. Unfortunately, there was no more time to pick up Kobe Bryant gear anywhere. They had already sealed off the store because as it turned out, he was going to emerge from the main entrance of the store.

After an hour of waiting under the thankfully gloomy sky, what followed was (and I apologize for my own emotional outburst), an uncontrollable roar of appreciation from the Kobe Bryant faithful. Hope you guys appreciate the high-res Kobe Bryant interview.

Kobe Live in Manila Interview at Nike Park Bonifactio High Street from Alvin Jimenez

Picture post upcoming so stay tuned!

*Thanks to Ro Manalo and Liza Lagman for scoring me the tickets and passes!

*Damn the kid and girl who each got a signed shoe from Kobe.

From Alvin Jimenez

I can only hope that this first post out of the 30 I’m supposed to finish by same time next month isn’t an indication of how I want to do this. Posting a minute right before the stroke of midnight shouldn’t count. Though I should still be high after seeing Kobe up close for a good 30 minutes or so, today, the world lost a very cool guy.

Raoul Erana had been battling with a brain tumor for the past two or so months before today. Everything was so unexpected.

I wasn’t that close to Raoul. Since he used to work with the womens’ titles, the only time we’d talk to each other was during our weekly pick up games in Valle Verde. During the two or more years I had the chance of sharing an office with this guy, never did I remember ever seeing a frown on his face. I usually don’t like it when people think that lahat ng bagay nadadaan sa tawa, but this guy had a knack for it without coming across as irresponsible. That was just how he handled things — with that infectious smile on his face.

I think everyone who knows him will agree with me that it’s how we’ll all remember him.

Rest in peace, Raoul.

From Alvin Jimenez

I’ve always believed there’s a way to avoid every stressful situation that comes in your life. I don’t like going to the movies without buying tickets beforehand. If you know you have to wake up early the following day, only be good for a drink or two. If you have a deadline coming up, make sure you’ve covered all your bases and plan ahead (this one I think I can still use some improvement on — just ask my people).

As with everyone who who has started their own blog, the number of days in between posts seems to dwindle as the days go by. Just see how often I posted in my first few months and you’ll see what I mean. I’d like to think that there isn’t a lack of post worthy stuff to put out there, and all I need is a more time management. It’s just funny that I would get the push I needed from the unlikeliest of people.

Well anyways, in the spirit of blog announcements, I can only hope I churn out enough quality posts for the next 30 days.

From Alvin Jimenez

It’s been a while since my last post, and with many a reason. I joined a few sports in our month long company sportsfest (none of which ended the way I would have wanted them to). Pair that with some unexpected changes at work, and you’ll find yourself trying to spread yourself thin across many many different tasks and projects. Something happened though, that was quite unexpected.

My fiance finally got a Plurk account. Yep, that’s the big news!

Sometime in May, Mariel and I actually had a petty quarrel about it. She complained that the first and last thing I did in a day was “update others about myself and find out what other people were doing”. An accusation which, I could not come up with an “acceptable” explanation for.

People who don’t belong to my line of work think that Plurk may just be another social networking tool. But really, the concept behind it is much more interesting. Type in a few words, sentences, and http’s, and boom — a few hundred people find out about it, and spread to another hundred, and so on. There’s so much more to this social networking thing that I have to talk about it in a different blog all in itself. It just so happens that in the course of the past 30 days, Mariel has put up a new blog, updated her current template, and accomplished a 30-day blog challenge.

Make no mistake about it, trying to convince or educate people with more traditional mindsets when it comes to these things can really test your patience. The payoff however, is well worth the trouble. In the end, it can even become a new source of inspiration.

If you have the time, please visit the following blogs:

• NY Minute Now
• 30 Day Blog Challenge
• Beauty in the Big Apple

Add her up on the following social networks as well:

• Twitter
• Plurk

Without bias (and if you’re looking for a light read), you’ll find yourself clicking previous entries until them posts run out.

P.S. Please help me convince her to jump to Wordpress

From Alvin Jimenez