It feels odd that I actually managed to watch only a little of the All-Star Weekend. I missed out on the festivities... Am I disappointed? Maybe. Or maybe not.
You see, it has been a weekend habit of mine as of late to cover football here, doing tweetcasts on behalf of Soccer Central Philippines for the United Football League. That means, for the past few weeks has been no rest for the weary, so the upcoming break will be a great reprieve.
I actually missed the Saturday activities (which is on Sunday) due to previouscommitments. Ditto for the game itself, which oddly enough, took place on Oscar night.
Here forth are the links after the jump. Nay-tona 500. (c/o Autoblog)
Welcome to the special Memorial Day edition to The Victory Formation.
Just to remind everyone, Memorial Day is an American Federal Holiday that they observe yearly at the last Monday of May, in which this year falls on the 30th. This commemorates all those who died while serving in the United States military.
Like most of the people in the United States, I am also getting the day off. To all my Stateside friends, I hope you get to do the right thing and honor the ones who gave their lives to defend your country from threats known or unknown.
It has been a while since I got the weekend off, and I really need it to get some rest, relaxation and time to stay at home. Unfortunately, most of my family got the chance to go out and frolic. At least, I get to do some more editing of photos and finish some blogs that I really need to go and write about, I hope.
How does the U.S. Embassy here honor Memorial Day? Recently, the U.S.S. Carl Vinson docked in our shores for a routine port call and then some. That aircraft carrier is the so-called funeral hearse for Osama Bin Laden. Some of my blogger friends luckily were able to go on-board and check the dock out.
Here is a nice picture of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson in Manila before we give way to the links.
Memorial Day weekend is all about racing. Dan Wheldon lucks into a rookie mistake (c/o Los Angeles Times). Kevin Harvick takes advantage of Dale Earnhardt, jr.'s fuel woes (c/o USA Today). In the principality of Monaco, Sebastian Vettel continues his dominance of the Formula 1 circuit (c/o VivaF1).
Danica Patrick might be coming to 2012 to a redneck neighborhood near you. (c/o Post Chronicle)
The beat goes on. Lost in the midst of Novak and his quest to smash McEnroe's streak is the fact that Roger Federer is now in 28 straight quarterfinals on Grand Slams (c/o The Independent).
The Williams siblings will be back in time for World Team Tennis. (c/o MSNBC)
Maryland vs Virginia for Lacrosse dominance by the men. (c/o Streaking the Lawn) Bad sign? Northwestern beat the kids from College Park to seal ladies' lacrosse. (c/o Wall Street Journal)
Jamaican dominance in sprints. Probably not going to go away anytime soon. (c/o BBC Sport) Meanwhile, Usain Bolt comes out just fine. (c/o Jamaican Observer)
It takes Charlie Davies and DC United to finally be the team to beat the Portland Timbers at their turf. (c/o Potomac Soccer Wire)
Congratulations to FC Barcelona, who made mincemeat of whatever Manchester United threw at them (c/o Zonal Marking). Meanwhile, Berbatov did not take kindly to being omitted. (c/o The Sun)
Congratulations to AS Monaco for playing your 2000th Ligue 1 game. Your reward is relegation to Ligue 2. (c/o Yahoo! Eurosport UK)
Sepp Blatter has escaped once again the clutches of nasty allegations. (c/o New York Times) And he probably will be getting a fresh new mandate (c/o Bloomberg).
The Donald is finally on top. (c/o Herald Scotland)
Charl gets membership. For Life. (c/o ProGolf Talk)
Something Annika Sorenstam or Michelle Wie never could do. (c/o Larry Brown Sports)
Greg Paulus as a future college basketball coach? (c/o The Lantern)
No more Cody Green, pressure now on Brion Carnes. (c/o Husker Extra)
Classic case of "OMG, I just threw my school under the bus, I need to be in good graces with them, you know..." (c/o Waiting for Next Year)
Some of the Rams know that sports provide temporary relief from trauma. (c/o STL Sports Minute)
Transforming a sign of negativity into a sign of hope. (c/o National Football Post)
Good news for the Canucks (c/o The Globe and Mail). He's been handy for them off the ice (c/o Orland Kurtenblog).
Hockey is king, because unlike basketball in Chicago, others had to adjust schedule. (c/o Vancouver Sun)
Defending the need for the Atlanta Thrashers to stay. (c/o Matchsticks and Gasoline)
Cavs want BOTH Kyrie Irving and Derrick Williams. (c/o ProBasketball Talk)
The John Kuester era in Detroit has reached a merciful end. (c/o The Detroit Sports Site)
Lebron is humbled by the Jordan praise. (c/o King James Gospel)
Welcome to today's edition of The Victory Formation.
I am sure everyone was looking forward to the rapture moment the other day. The world was looking forward to whether the world was going to end or how epically bad it was going to become. It even spawned lots and lots of memes, from confessions to playlists to even views on fave videos on Youtube. Unfortunately, the day came and went, and pretty much no cataclysmic event occurred. And so, the man who "cried wolf," then goes incommunicado, probably embarrassed that his prediction did not push through.
Considering that we were ahead of most readers time zone wise, I sort of was anticipating what was to happen to us, last Saturday, at 6pm. Nothing happened, although I was watching these ladies perform and do their thing, I'd die happy if if it really ended on that moment.
Here forth are links to make your morning.
First up, some local news. Oddly enough, I did not feel an earthquake late last night. Must be really dense. (c/o Philippine Star) Not only that, there is a storm in the midst (c/o Philippine Daily Inquirer).
Only in the Philippines, where a prisoner actually gets a "vacation" (c/o GMA News)
Football preparations well underway for our World Cup Qualifier being slightly over a month away. (c/o GMA News)
Manny Pacquiao does not want you to use condoms. (c/o Fire Quinito) Meanwhile, he already has something lined up for November (c/o San Antonio Express) and it is not this guy (c/o Underdog Boxing). He is already earmarked for Glee, by the way. (c/o ABS-CBN News)
Bernard Hopkins still knows how to throw barbs, and not just the ones he threw at Donovan McNabb. (c/o Bragging Rights Corner). Chad Dawson is the next hurdle, I presume (c/o Boxing News 24).
On the other hand, it's time, Roy Jones, jr. It's time. Enough. (c/o Ball Junkie).
Oscar Dela Hoya needs to get things back in order. (c/o Daily Star)
Hey, got nothing to do due to the lockout, Ray Edwards goes the Zbikowski route. (c/o Shutdown Corner). On the other hand, Garrett Wolfe takes the Dez Bryant route and goes another notch. (c/o Bear Goggles On)
Tedy Bruschi successfully climbs Mt. Kilimanjaro. (c/o ESPN Boston)
Appy State might crash the BCS party. It'll take forever, though. Still remember how the pulled the rug at the Big House. (c/o College Football Talk)
The Lacrosse Final Four is complete. (c/o Washington Post) and one ended in clutch (SB Nation DC).
The Belmont Stakes lost luster, but the battle between Shackleford and Animal Kingdom might be the headline. (c/o Louisville Courier-Journal)
There was volleyball in the Preakness. (c/o Examiner)
The French Open has begun! (c/o Wall Street Journal) As such, it also gives me license to post this:
FC Porto is dominating Portugal (c/o Pravda) and Europe (c/o New York Times' Goal).
A French club ended their title drought that lasted as long as the San Francisco Giants. (c/o Football Fan Cast)
Why should Landon Donovan go to AS Roma? A guy gave 100 reasons. (c/o Sensible Soccer)
We know college football and how some teams handle Twitter, Manchester United might provide a template for professional clubs to go forth with. (c/o The Guardian)
Real Madrid and Philadelphia fans about make themselves comfy with each other. (c/o Yahoo!)
Adios to the Premiership for Birmingham (c/o Daily Mail). But for Blackpool, they might luckily get a European backdoor amidst their relegation (c/o Blackpool Gazette).
Roman Abramovich does not like failure. (c/o The London Telegraph)
Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllll! Ronaldo! (c/o Who Ate All The Pies)
Canada at the pole. (c/o Toronto Sun) Here are your 33 racers for the milk bottle (c/o Auto Racing Daily). Their Euro-based cousins had a race in Spain with Bassy dominatin'. (c/o The First Post)
Can the Iceman make the Montoya transition? (c/o Autoblog)
The slide downwards continues for Tiger Woods, and with that, so does golf's major relevance. (c/o ProGolf Talk)
Canucks just one game away from Lord Stanley's finals. (c/o Vancouver Sun)
The Bolts are around (c/o Slap Shot). And they made themselves known (c/o Boston Globe).
Because they do not understand this procedure, MLB thinks this is performance-enhancing. (c/o New York Daily News) And with the results Colon is showing, others want it, too. (c/o San Francisco Chronicle)
Cliff Lee shows the Rangers what they're missing. (c/o Dallas Morning News)
What lies in the immediate horizon for the Yankees: tempering Jose Bautista (c/o Newark Star-Ledger).
Is the cure for the Philly woes is with them all along? (c/o Philadelphia Sports Daily)
Fredi now has no worries on where Jason Heyward is in the batting order. (c/o Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Mavs lead Thunder after three games. (c/o Sports Illustrated)
NBA does the right thing and rescinded the Chandler tech after the James Harden acting job. (c/o Sportsgrid)
These are the kind of things that wrecked the Garnett-Starbury pairing in Minnesota. Can KD and Russ fix it? (c/o Larry Brown Sports)
Found it odd that a guy who shot 24 free throws two games later just shoots one. (c/o CBS Sports)
Happy Memorial Day to all those who are celebrating the holiday!
Luckily, since my office is celebrating the holiday, I get the night off. A day free from stress and consternation. A day free from annoyances and disturbances.
I decided to do this a little earlier than usual time, given recent matters. Like the fact that I have a night life to attend to (finally) and I would like to leave the house and attend a #tweetup.
It has been a while since I have gotten the chance to go out and enjoy the night. Schedule has not been that cooperative and if something opens up, I feel exhausted.
People should take advantage of whatever breaks they have to see what is out there. After all, you live only once and instead of living in regret on missed opportunities, one should take advantage of it.
One thing I always wanted has been to go visit the provinces and partake of local tourism. Never really gone out (unless with family). The only time I managed to go out, it was to the former British Crown Colony a few years. I hope I can get the chance to seize this little possibility and grab it and fully abuse it.
Happy Memorial Day! Enjoy your BBQ!
Memorial Link love.
In the realm of tradition, Dario got milk. Meanwhile, thank goodness for car safety.
However, Penske denies Ganassi a Memorial Day double.
Apprarently, Kendry's Bill Gramatica moment scarred Mike Scioscia. It spooked the Rangers, too. Well, so far so good for immediate impact. Does Carlos Delgado, Jermaine Dye or even Mike Lowell ring a bell?
Hello. Good Morning.
