FIA Intramurals: Dodgeball
November 17, 2009
By: Patrick Millan
Dodgeball is a sport that is near and dear to my heart. When I look back at college and what was near and dear to my heart, I can think of three things: the friends I made (especially the eight), FIA, and dodgeball. My freshman year, my class bonded together through the ups and downs of dodgeball, Tuesdays and Thursdays on days of good weather at 9:00pm at the Aberdeen courts. We have competed in many tournaments outside UIC, under the monikers of the Bus Drivers, the Blue Barracudas, Cobra Kai, the Oopma Loompas, and the Freakazoids and done well. At UIC, I have taken part of many dodgeball intramurals, most memorably, the Stride Dodgeball tournament in the fall of 2007 which we won.
Yesterday, November 16, 2009, the competitive men’s dodgeball intramurals started. Our team, consisted of all seniors: captain Alain Ranay, Janritz Panganiban, Carl Gramata, Jeremy Jiloca, Keith DeAsis, and myself. Thanks to all three of you that were there to support us (Jackie DePeralta, Corinne Martin, and Jason Cosejo).
Each game lasted thirty minutes. You basically had to get all the members of the other team out to earn a point in the game. After a point is scored the games starts with both teams at full strength. At the end of the thirty minutes, the team with the most points would win the game and advance to the next round. The loser would be sent to the loser’s bracket of the double elimination tournament.
Our first game was at 5:20pm against the Fiji Phuxs. The time was inconvenient because, even though Rice Bowl is on Saturday at Schiller Woods, at 8:00am, Ale and I had to leave Rice Bowl practice early to make it to the dodgeball game in time. Normally we wouldn’t mind being late because we know our team can play well, even without us, but without enough people, the game would be considered a forfeit; forfeits without sufficient notice cost $25.
Anyways, this has been the first time we played dodgeball since early October, so we were nervous at the beginning. Once the game started going, our nerves were gone. We dominated the first game within a minute with all our men still on the floor. We breezed through the next two games in a row before we got too cocky and dropped one. We played with so much energy and so well as a team that we weren’t worried at all about losing the match. Keith was our arm, Carl and I were the speed, Jeremy and Ale were the Catchers, and Janritz was the emotional leader. We won the next seven games with ease and ended up not caring about the last game since time was running out and we wanted to rest. Game One: FIA – 10: Fiji Phuxs – 2.
Game two started at 6:40pm against the Masters of the Universe. I personally wanted to face this team because I knew one of it’s members from high school. We were still amped up to play, even after our short rest. We came out of the gates guns blazing, ending the first three games once again within three minutes. Once again we got cocky and lost the next game. The loss alternated with a win and another loss. The games were getting tense because their members started complaining about refs calls and started talking crap against us. Janritz stepped up, talked back at them, and defended our team when all we really needed to do was point at the scoreboard and show them who was winning. He took the place of me last year. Last year I got into it with the other teams and the refs and was almost suspended from the rec. I thought Ale was our MVP of the match; he won a good majority of the games for us, seemingly single-handed. I easily was the worst one on the team for this series. I was typically the first one out because I would be the only one that sprinted to go get a ball and either got picked off or unnecessarily dove for a catch. Either way, FIA came out on top. Game 2: FIA – 8: Masters of the Universe – 6.
Game three started at 8:00pm and it was against the Average Joes (unique name huh?). By this time, a lot of our muscles tightened up and we were tired from already playing an hour’s worth of dodgeball. We weren’t too worried because the Average Joes were coming off a close victory in the previous match and had to immediately play us.
Before the game started, Jeremy huddled us together and gave us some coaching. He basically said slow down. The past two games we expended a lot of energy to start the game and got tired towards the end. Jeremy wanted us to pace ourselves because we knew they were tired and we didn’t want to exhaust ourselves for our evening after dodgeball.
We paced ourselves and played well, but not our best. In contrast to the other two games where we won the first three games within the first three minutes, this time we won the first three games in within twelve minutes of the match. We were well rested and having fun. The other team didn’t really give us a challenge this time around. Our last game ended with a lackadaisical diving catch by me. Game 3: FIA – 7: Average Joes – 0.
What was interesting was that there was another team watching us play and were saying things like that we both played like garbage. It upset one of our spectators and he told us. Jason wants us to shut the other guy up when we face them. While everyone else left, Carl and I stayed to see how the next two teams played. The team with the trash talker was actually pretty good. They had great team chemistry, could catch, and could throw. They were able to get their first three victories within four minutes. The team was “Buck”, the defending Dodgeball Intramural Champions from fall of 2008. Watching them play, I can almost guarantee that we will be seeing them in the next time we play in the semi-finals of the tournament.
The semi-finals will be played on Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 9:20pm at the Rec. Please come out and support us!
Patrick Millan
President ’09-‘10
Filipinos in Alliance
FIA attends BSO's Fashion Show!
November 15, 2009
By: Patrick Millan
Hey FIA,
How was your weekend? I hope some of you were able to attend KPiB’s show Resonance. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend the Resonance Show. Ten other FIA members and I went to Marquette University to support Bayanihan Student Organization (BSO) with their 13th Annual Fall Fashion Show: Lucky 13. Ironic isn’t it that it was on Saturday the 14th, rather than Friday the 13th. Anyways other than me, those who represented FIA were MarkE Ezpeleta (VPE), Mikey Lazaro (Treasurer), Roxanne Del Rosario (Secretary), Corinne Martin (Modern Coord), Becky Ranay, (Athletic Coord), Emil Encarnado (PRO), Jade Narrido (Webmaster), Melissa Gaba (’08-’09 President), Ale Ranay, and Doug Hilo. Everyone else, who didn’t come, missed out on a good time and an awesome show.
We were all supposed to meet at Mikey’s at one-thirty so that we could leave by two. We ended up leaving right on time, well at least Filipno time at about two-twenty. For the eleven people, we drove four cars. Once we arrived in Milwaukee at about four. We were all hungry so we stopped by Sobelman’s, supposedly the best burgers in Milwaukee. Mikey didn’t eat with us and Emil and Becky split a burger. So eight burgers fries and Corinne’s kids meal and our bill totaled $50, which was good considering the size and taste of the burgers. I would have to agree and say that so far, it is the best Milwaukee burger I’ve had, although it was the only one I’ve ever tried.
Off to the fashion show. The BSO Fall Fashion Show was a non-profit event were all the proceeds benefited the Wisconsin Humane Society. Tickets were $8 at the door. A lot of people made it to the show before us. Luckily, BSO was awesome enough to save us a whole row of seats, the second row; the first row was reserved for BSO’s Alumni that came out to support them.
Outside in the lobby were the programs, t-shirt sales and the silent auction. The silent auction consisted of a lot of different things like: 4 tickets to watch a Milwaukee Bucks game, dog shaped cookies, a cheese basket, sadly an autographed football from the Green Bay Packers, and much more. FIA donated three baskets to the silent auction. The first basket was a FIA themed basket. It had five FIA t-shirts in it including a ’09-‘10 membership t-shirt, a ’08-’09 membership t-shirt, an ’09 Battle of the Bamboo t-shirt, a ’08 BOTB t-shirt, and an ’08 Uproot t-shit. It also had a poster from MAFA 2009. The starting bid for that was $15. The second basket was a UIC basket: it had a UIC flames t-shirt, UIC legal pads and paper, a UIC Lanyard, and a UIC thermal lunchbox. The starting bid was $10. The third basket was the College Apartment Survival Kit. This basket had Spam, Vienna Sausage, Corned Beef, Ramen Noodles, Rice, and cups. The starting bid for this was $15.
The winners of the Silent Auction were announced at the end of the show. Corinne and Mikey won the Marquette spirit stuff. I think it included a draw string bag, two Marquette t-shirts, and wristbands. I won the s’mores basket which had Honey Gram Crackers, marshmallows, a Hersey’s Chocolate Bar, Chocolate syrup, candles, and a dog blanket. The FIA Themed basket sold for $20, the UIC themed basket sold for $15, as well as the College Apartment survival kit.
The show started with a prayer and was then led to the show’s MCs who are BSO’s external and internal PRs, Camille Dihiansan and Kara Tamayao, as well as Andrew Pauly. In their opening skit, the MCs called onto stage a randomly chosen “winner” from the audience, which turned out to be Mikey. His prize was to dance on stage for a short amount of time for fame.
What basically happened was that after the MCs introduced a scene, the models would come out, model their clothes, and do a few choreographed dances. They had all different types of segments such as sports wear, career wear, casual wear, cultural, a fall/winter collection, formal wear, casual dance, and modern.
The career wear segment was interesting because there were Marquette faculty dancing and modeling for the crowd. It was at some points awkward to watch. The casual wear had the most memorable music to me. It was Disney themed, started with “I 2 I” from a Goofy Movie, and transitioned into “I’ll make a Man out of You” from Mulan. Their cultural segments were interesting because they didn’t just focus on Filipino culture. They represented African, Latin American, Pacific Islander, Italian, Hmong, Polish, and Capoeira culture as well. BSO’s lone cultural dance performed was Sayaw Sa Bangko. It was a different version than what FIA has done in the past. They stacked onto two stories and ended on a unique 360° turn. BSO’s Modern closed out the show.
I want to congratulate Irish Diwa, Noelle Papilla, and Alana Wauneka (the Fashion Show Coordinators) for putting on an amazing show.
The show was over at about nine-thirty, luckily before the Pacquaio fight was on. Once the fight started half of FIA watched the fight in the back of the auditorium while the other half helped clean. Unfortunately there was no afterset for the Fashion Show, so after Pacquaio’s 12th round victory over Cotto, we loaded our cars and headed back towards Chicago.
Overall it was an entertaining show that did well with a cause. Early indications show that they made over $6000 for the Wisconsin Humane Society. Congrats BSO and thanks for inviting us to your show!
Patrick Millan
President ’09-‘10
Filipinos in Alliance
FIA visits BSO
October 3, 2009
By: Lizelle Marcial
Hi! It’s currently 9:45pm. I’m on my way back to Chicago with Jade, FIA’s webmaster. We’re coming from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What were we doing in Wisconsin? Well… Jade, Emil, MarkE, Mikey, Pat, and I went to Marquette University (FIA’s ading school) to play capture the flag with Bayanihan Student Organization (BSO)’s families (their version of our AKA program/FIAmilies). The field was slippery and muddy, and it was cold out… but it was A LOT of fun. Jade says, “It was awesome. It was an epic battle and a lot of fun.” FIA should totally play capture the flag this year!
We got to meet a few BSO staff and members; after FIA staff even got free long-sleeve BSO fashion show t-shirts! Yay for free stuff! Well, we also gave their staff FIA shirts as a gift. Sharing is caring! J
I’m excited to get to know them more and have them join us at FACT.
Moreover, I just ate sushi at Fujiyama with Jade, his high school classmate Nathan, and Steve, someone we all just met. I had shrimp tempura sushi and salmon & avocado sushi. It was delicious! It turned out to be $12.55 and I gave them $15. Before going to Marquette, we ate at Chipotle with a few of the BSO members. I had a steak burrito bowl. Yum!
Too much detail? Haha, I’m sorry, but… that’s me! Fun fact about Lizelle Marcial: I love adding details and paying attention to detail. ;]
Today was a lot of fun. I’m glad I took the time to go out to Wisconsin to meet new people and play with BSO. I made new friends. :D
Ugh! It smells like skunk!! Haha, we’re on highway I-94 E. OoOOoooo… “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz is playing now; goooood stuff.
Anyways, I guess I’ll end this now... ‘til next time!
-Lizelle FIA’s Co-Cultural Coordinator
P.S. I miss my “bespren” & co-coord, Mike Orosa! He was supposed to be on this road trip as well, but he had prior engagements. Too bad you had to miss out, bes! You were missed.
Thanks, Kuya Phill
Sunday, September 6, 2009
By: Kristine Arboleda
as you might know, Phill Ozaki (my future husband and past FIA cultural awareness chair) is moving to D.C. next week. i am currently in the process of mourning and cannot get out of my bed . . .
well, that's not completely true - i'm not in soo much mourning because I know that Phill will be going on to bigger and better things! he's gunna be helping me out with some cultural stuff (i had really big shoes to fill, you guys), and he's sent me this in hopes that all of you reading this might enjoy it: p.s. michael copon is hott.
Whenever recess hit in the 5th grade, or while I was at my family friends' playing outside, there was always one show my friends and I would want to emulate: Power Rangers. The Ninja Turtles had run their course, and Dragonball Z had yet to hit our shores. While we had the imagination to pretend we were superhero martial artists, we never considered acting on the show as one. Michael Copon, a Pilipino from Virginia, actually got to live the life as the Blue Time Force Power Ranger, which began his career as a television and film actor. BakitWhy.com had the chance to meet up with Michael during a recent weekend trip he had to Chicago. Following his stint as a time traveling teenager with attitude, he held a recurring role on "One Tree Hill" playing Felix Taggaro, along with cameos on "Scrubs", "Greek", and "CSI: Miami". He also starred in leading roles in the movies Bring It On: In It to Win It and The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. As for what he's doing currently and in the future…well, check out our exclusive interview:
Follow Michael on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/michaelcopon
Follow Michael on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/mcopon
Follow Michael on MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/copon8
Many special thanks to Stephanie Gonzales, Jacklyn-Nicole Mandera and Bboy Mangubat for setting up the interview, Mike Maravilla of Unscene Media Group for taping and editing, Filipiniana Restaurant, and Michael Copon!
What is Culture?
By: Kristine Arboleda
I also stole a couple of the event's programs while we were waiting to line up for the parade. Okay, maybe they were free, but I think I took 2 or 3 more than I should have. I skimmed through the program and read this section, one that is describing Filipino culture:
Filipino culture is a fusion of pre-Hispanic indigenous Austronesian civilizations of the Philippines mixed with Hispanic and American. The Hispanic influences in Filipino culture are largely derived from the culture of Spain and Mexico as a result of over three centuries of Spanish colonial rule through Mexico. These Hispanic influences are most evident in literature, folk music, folk dance, language, food, art and religion, such as Roman Catholic Church religious festivals. Filipinos hold major festivities known as barrio fiestas to commemorate their patron saints. One of the most visible Hispanic legacies is the prevalence of Spanish surnames among Filipinos.
I mean, don't get me wrong, there's absolutely nothing wrong with this description - it's just a little too cookie-cutter for my taste. I think that culture is a lot more than the countries where we originated from or the food we eat or the dances we dance or the religion we choose to abide by. Culture is a fluid process; it's this incredibly complex entity that influences who we are as people. Many may claim that there culture does not impact the person that they have become - but these people are simply blind to the fact that culture plays a HUGE role in the way they think and act and make decisions. Why do you have that rosary on your rear-view mirror? Why do you frequently burst into song? Why do you feel the necessity to greet your elders - even if they're not closely related to you?
Don't be afraid to embrace your culture. And don't be afraid to embrace other cultures too. I have a feeling you'll enjoy learning the differences.
I, on the other hand, am out! Super exhausting (but great) day. More posts to come laterr. <3
Heroes and Icons
05/30/09
By: Kristine Arboleda
So, I was skimming through Time Magazine's 100 Most Influencial People Issue, and whose deep-set eyes do I find staring me down? I shouldn't be surprised, Manny had swept the world off its feet and placed it in a boxing ring (of all the places!). He brought to the world a new love for the sport and an even greater respect for his people. I could not imagine any athlete - Filipino or otherwise - who deserves this honor more than Mr. Pacquiao. I was filled with an insane sense of pride as I read this article, so i'd like to share i'd with you in teh hopes that you might feel the same way- let's see what Lennox Lewis had to say: Manny Pacquiao By Lennox Lewis
Pound for pound, Manny Pacquiao is the best boxer in the world. But even more important than holding that distinction, Manny has connected with the people of his home country, the Philippines, to the point where he's almost like a god. The people have rallied behind him and feel like they're a part of him, because they can see his talent, his dedication, his grace and his class. The grip he holds over the Philippines is similar to Nelson Mandela's influence in South Africa. I can surely see Manny becoming the Philippine President one day.
In fact, he already ran for Congress in the Philippines but lost, in part because voters thought he could do more for the country as an inspirational champion boxer. I agree with the Filipino people. Manny, 30, already has a true global reach, and his influence will only expand as he gets better. Manny is from the Muhammad Ali school. He's a boxer, a puncher and a mover — a champion in four weight divisions. He doesn't stand there and take shots. He throws that wicked jab and is so quick to dodge trouble.
Boxing needs a guy like Manny. Too often, when something positive develops, the sport takes two steps backward; you never know where the black eye is going to come from. With Manny, you don't have to worry about that. He just loves the sport and knows he's carrying the hopes of his country in the ring.
Lewis, the former world heavyweight champion, is a boxing commentator for HBO Sports
Fast Fact: Pacquiao is the first athlete the Philippine Postal Corp. has honored with his own stamp