Erik Spoelstra is the first Pinoy coach in the NBA Finals

The victory of the Miami Heat over the Chicago Bulls last Friday made history for Filipino-American coach Erik Spoelstra as the first Filipino and Asian coach in the NBA finals. Spoelstra steered the Heat to victory in the Eastern Conference Final Playoffs to set up an NBA Finals series against the Dallas Mavericks.

Sure, it wasn’t a walk in the park for Spoelstra. He spent two years as a player-coach for Tus Herten in the German professional league following his stint at the University of Portland. He joined the Miami Heat staff in 1995 as a video coordinator. Two years after, he was named assistant coach and then promoted to assistant coach/advance scout in 1999. He became the assistant coach/director of scouting in 2001. He was an assistant coach with the Miami Heat when they won the 2006 NBA Finals by defeating the Dallas Mavericks.

It was on April 2008 when Spoelstra was named successor to Basketball Hall of Fame coach Pat Riley as head coach of the Miami Heat to become the youngest head coach in the NBA.

Spoelstra is the son of Irish-Dutch-American Jon Spoelstra, who was a long-time NBA executive for the Portland Trail Blazers, Denver Nuggets, and New Jersey Nets and Elisa Celino, who was from San Pablo, Laguna in the Philippines.

With Spoelstra at the helm, I hope that the Miami Heat will win the championship this season.

The NBA Finals between the Heat and the Mavericks will start on Wednesday.


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Pinay crowned Miss World Canada

Riza Santos, a former housemate of the ABS-CBN reality show “Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2” will represent Canada in this year’s Miss World beauty pageant which will be held in London this November after she was crowned Miss World Canada 2011 last May 19 in a pageant held in Richmond, British Columbia, according to abs-cbnnews.com.

Santos, a Filipino-Canadian, also competed as Miss Canada in the Miss Earth pageant last 2006 which was held here in the Philippines. She won the Miss Photogenic and Miss Fontana awards.

In 2007, she joined the "Pinoy Big Brother Celebrity Edition 2" and was proclaimed as the second place winner of the show. She also played roles in different movies and TV shows in the Philippines like in the movies “Dobol Trobol” and “When Love Begins.” She also appeared in TV shows such as “I love Betty La Fea” Palos and Love Spell.

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Living every day as if it was my last.

If someone will tell you that today is your last day on earth, what will you do? Will you laugh at the foolishness of this person? Will you relinquish your worldly possessions, repent your sins and spend your last hours praising God and preaching His words? Will you scramble and turn to do the earthly things that you have not yet experienced in this lifetime?

When I heard the news that a religious group in the US predicted that doomsday would happen on the 21st of May, 2011, my initial reaction was disbelief. I firmly believe that nobody can predict the Lord’s return. The Bible, although it gave us signs of the end of times, also warned us of false prophets. Come to think of it, knowing when the world will end defeats the purpose of us having to turn to the Lord in our own free will.

I spent the day just like any ordinary day. We went to a resort in Bulacan, with Donna and her friends. The resort was jam-packed, an indication that these people too did not take the doomsday prediction seriously. Based on the news reports, the world will end at 6pm Manila time. We left the resort at almost 7pm; still alive and kicking.

Surely, the doomsday prediction was a hoax. But most Christians believe in the Lord’s second coming. We just don’t know when it will happen. It maybe tomorrow, next year or we may not live to see it right before our eyes. One thing is for sure, we will leave this world one way or another.

If there’s anything good that we can get from this incident is that it gave us the opportunity to rethink our lives and see where we are in terms of our salvation. Can we firmly say that we are ready for the Lord’s second coming?

The world is filled with wickedness; evil is lurking on every corner, some countries are on the verge of war. These are all indications that people are still living away from the goodness of the Lord. Christian teachings taught me that we need to profess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior in order for us to be saved. It is written in Romans 10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Say, "Father in Heaven, I believe that Jesus died for my sins."

Life is full of uncertainties. We don’t know what will happen today or tomorrow. Every day is a gift from God. Perhaps, it is best for us to live everyday as if it were our last. Let us not waste our time with trivial and petty things. Let us live our lives fully and joyfully.

May God richly bless us all!



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Web Hosting Reviews

When deciding what movie to watch, I am the type of person who would first look at the various reviews about the film. This way, I can save myself from disappointments as there are movies who have great trailers but the movie as a whole is bad and a waste of time. Reading what others have to say about the film will save me a lot of time and effort.

Reading reviews is also helpful when looking for web hosting and other services on the web. By reading the feedback and comments of those who have already tried and tested the services of the company will help you decide if their service is what you are looking for. Of course, you should also compare the web hosting plans of different providers, their promotions and their ratings based on real customers.

There are many possibilities for hosting on the Web but we just have to bear in mind the important considerations that we should be looking for a web hosting company which to me are affordability, reliability, dependability and the technical support that the web hosting site can provide.

Looking at web hosting reviews has acquainted me to different web hosting services that are getting good reviews from different customers. One of these web hosting providers is Bluehost. According to a Bluehost review, this company provides excellent customer support, great products, and affordable rates. It also recently announced a phenomenal accomplishment after it reached 1,000,000 sites hosted. It is indeed a great accomplishment for any web hosting company.

Well, there are different websites offering web hosting reviews but the best place to go for this purpose it alreadyhosting.com. They have an easy to navigate site that features complete information on top web hosting providers and real reviews. All of these are provided to help you decide the best web hosting provider that will suit your needs.

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A Balancing Act.

We are definitely going through hard times. The prices of basic commodities are going up while the spending power of minimum wage earners is waning. It is but understandable for workers to ask for a wage increase when their paycheck can no longer keep up with the rising cost of living. But will a wage increase help solve the problem? Based on today’s reports, the National Wage and Productivity Commission only approved a Php22 increase to the ECOLA of minimum wage earners.

Some labor groups have been clamoring for a PHP125 across the board increase which they think is enough to ease the burden of ordinary workers. This is ideal. The question is if this is attainable. We have to remember that even employers or local companies are going through hard times. Not all of them are capable of shouldering the wage increase. We may think this is silly. But come to think of it, not all businesses are flourishing these days. The last thing that we want to do is to force these employers to close their shops thereby losing more jobs.

Some regarded the P22 ECOLA increase as an insult. I heard someone commented on TV that Filipinos are world-class workers and they deserve just and decent compensation. I totally agree. But the government cannot stop private businesses from closing shop or laying off workers.

What the government did was a balancing act. It cannot burden the employers too much to force them out of business which may result to more unemployed people. Employers, however, said that they can only give a little over P13. We all agree that people need to cope up with the rising cost of basic commodities.

What the government needs to do is to come up with more concrete programs and long-term solutions to problems plaguing the country for decades now such as poverty and unemployment. I think the government should focus its efforts on generating more jobs and providing other opportunities to people while making the country a good place for businesses to thrive. Trainings programs should be readily accessible to people who would want to improve their skills and look for more lucrative jobs.

The government can only do so much. At the end of the day, we are responsible for our lives. Our government will not feed us all. We have to work hard to attain our goals and free ourselves from poverty. There are only limited opportunities out there. Many people are jobless so you are sure that there will be other people vying for the job that you want. Stiff competition is guaranteed. What we should do is to make sure that we are equipped with the necessary training and skills that will propel us to get our ideal job.


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Another victory for Manny Pacquiao

I was expecting an explosive boxing match last Sunday when Filipino world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao went up against former world champion Sugar Shane Mosley in Las Vegas , Nevada . After all, these two are both experienced boxers and have held numerous boxing championship belts. If you were one of the many people who have watched the match, then you should know what I’m talking about. It was not as we have expected, no staggering exchange of punches, no bloody faces. Certainly, Pacquiao had better fights. On the other hand, it was an embarrassing loss for Mosley. And I personally think that he should contemplate quitting boxing.

It was a lopsided win as Pacquiao dominated every round. He tried to chase Mosley who started dodging him after the third round knockdown. Good thing I didn’t pay to watch the fight or else I would be asking for my money back.

The referee even made a bad call on the 10th round when he ruled a knockdown when Mosley attacked Pacquiao and with a push sent the Filipino boxer to the canvass.

Nonetheless, Pacquiao emerged victorious and that is all that matters. He successfully defended his World Boxing Organization (WBO) welterweight title with a unanimous decision. He had once again made every Filipinos proud.


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