Marco Manipon's The Bobo Blog

Exercised my right to vote this morning and here are my picks. Iba-iba tayo siyempre. And by the way, BUHAY ang Party List ko.

This is a pretty cool story. I posted a comment on one of Highsnobiety’s posts and for the first time ever, I had a Facebook activity that garnered more than a thousand reactions.

1.8K reactions according to Facebook: 1.3K likes, 429 hahas, 63 loves and a wow. Wow.

The post is about the sequel of Black Panther which also happens to be the first movie from the Marvel Cinematic Universe that I watched inside a sinehan (they say Deadpool is not part of that universe) and it mentions that Donald Glover is rumored to be part of that movie as its villain.

As we all know, Glover’s (or Childish Gambino when he raps) hit song “This is America” is a hit so I kind of mixed things up. My comment? “This is Wakanda. Don’t catch you slippin’ up.” Because of that, the berlin-based news website included me in their Top 10 Comments of the Week and I ended up getting the 2nd spot right behind a joke about Eminem and Nicki Minaj.

Check out the article here: https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/best-comments-black-panther-2-kendrick-lamar/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=SF+Highsnobiety+Main+Post

So there, I found my name included in a site that covers hype. Haha.

Highsnobiety is a daily news website covering streetwear, sneakers, cars, lifestyle, and the arts. Visit them at http://highsnobiety.com.

Nike, NBA’s official outfitter recently collaborated with Supreme for a number of merchandise that includes a shoe, warm-up jackets, jerseys, and shorts. The design of the clothes is simple; it features the famous red box logo of Supreme and all the logos of every NBA team plus of course, the swoosh.

It looks stupid to me to be honest but there’s Nike and Supreme’s logo plus your favorite team’s so I guess, you’ll still look fire once you wear it like the soup-throwing JR Smith of the Cleveland Cavaliers. So it made me think, what if the PBA collaborated with Nike and Supreme? How would it look like?

Well, probably like this. Hypebeast extraordinaire. Pinoy style.

After almost five years, fifteen PBA conferences, four cool championship shirts and a rare grand slam, the Star Hotshots are parting ways with Titan, the team’s official outfitter since the start of the 2012-2013 PBA Philippine Cup when the franchise was still the San Mig Coffee Mixers.

Bummer! Titan’s so cool.

This was accidentally revealed to me by no less than the team’s head of marketing, Reena del Mundo on Twitter. My real intention was to ask if the team will again be called as the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs because there are some hardcore trolls who are spreading that via social media and I need an official verification from people that are actually within the team.

No, the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs won’t make a comeback (insert sad face) and yes, Titan will no longer outfit the Hotshots. No, it’s not going to be Chlomars — The Coach Chito Victolero-owned sportswear but the new outfitter is … DICKIES. 

Disclaimer: According to Ms. Reena, Dickies and Star have already agreed in principle but official papers are yet to be signed.

Yes, Dickies. If you know Slapshock, yes, that Dickies.

Actually, the brand has already been outfitting PBA teams for years. I first saw the workwear’s logo on Coca-Cola Tigers’ jerseys during their Asi Taulava days. And just recently, the San Miguel Beermen almost won a grand slam wearing their Dickies-outfitted uniforms.

I personally don’t like brands that are not really associated with sports sponsoring PBA jerseys. You know, Maui and Sons on Alaska’s jerseys, RRJ on Blackwater, Freego on Rain or Shine and more but I guess I need to find it cool now because it’s on my favorite team’s threads.

Dickies, once the contract is signed, is going to be the Purefoods franchise’s 7th outfitter ever after adidas, Nike, Fila, Sonnix (WTF), Anta and Titan. From the team’s 13 championships, 6 are during the time they’re wearing adidas, they won 4 with Titan, 2 with Nike and 1 with Anta. Are they going to win at least one while wearing Dickies? Let’s see. The new PBA season begins December 17, 2017.

I may not get a lot of text messages every day of my boring life because no one loves me. I’m creepy, I’m not pogi. But I take pride in the ringtones that I have. For example, my caller ringtone is the same as BoJack Horseman’s. You know, the Horsin’ Around theme. Cool, cool show, man.

And my SMS ringtone? If you’re a certified Kerby Raymundo fan then you’ll wet your pants.

“Alam ko sa sarili ko, ako ang MVP!”

And he is, for sure — and for life. Despite asking me on Instagram to not post it matching with a few cute monkey emojis, I didn’t follow it and kept the post and now, it’s my SMS ringtone.

“Alam ko sa sarili ko, ako ang MVP! (Ako ang MVP, ako ang MVP, ako ang MVP!)”

You may download it HERE. Credits to Syd Salazar of YouTube for the original clip and of course, thank you, Kerby Raymundo.

I really don’t want to go all out millennial right here, you know, ranting on the internet about things that I should not really care about—in English, of course—but I can’t help it. I saw what would be this year’s PBA All-Star jersey on social media and oh, my goodness. Channeling my inner annoying pabebe I asked myself, “talaga ba?!”

As I was browsing my Instagram timeline pretending that I don’t care about the social media app’s new Snapchat-like feature, I saw my main man James Yap’s post about how thankful he is for being, yet again… for the thirteenth time, included in the league’s annual All-Star game. That’s nice. Congratulations, James (see ya!). You’re the man. But what snatched my attention was the actual picture he posted. It’s this year’s South All-Stars jersey that’s yet to be flat ironed. Up and down. Jersey and shorts. And if you would look closely, tang-ina. It’s the Golden State Warriors jersey but with the subpar South All-Stars logo. Parang ligang barangay lang.

I don’t know. The North All-Stars might wear Cleveland Cavaliers-like uniforms.

By far, if that’s indeed the jersey for this year’s event, it’s going to be the worst ever. Last year’s Kia Sorento-esque kits were annoying but acceptable because I actually liked that design (I just don’t get up until now why that; why that, PBA?). For this year, the fact that the design was approved and heck, conceptualized just goes to show how poor the think-tank of the PBA is right now. And that will also explain to us why a lot of people are not watching the games in the venues this season. Poor marketing skills. The Divisoria-esque, fake-looking jersey looks as fake as the fake diploma one of the league’s honchos owns.

The PBA should really, really step their game up.

There is Allan Caidic’s epical 79-point performance wherein he made 17 3-pointers in one game (take that, Stephen Curry). There is Robert Jaworski Sr’s unthinkable never-say-die fourth quarter comeback despite receiving stitches in his lips early on that game. Of course, Crispa’s almost perfect season in 1980 should be in the equation. There’s more. The list goes on. There are a lot of unforgettable PBA moments and it’s difficult to specify these one by one. But if there’s one that I truly will never forget, that has to be Kerby Raymundo’s “Ako ang MVP!” moment.

“Alam ko, sa sarili ko, ako ang MVP!” Raymundo, being interviewed as the Best Player of the Game that night, shouted as he ran straight into the dugout. Amusingly, it was Star Hotshots’ head coach, Jason Webb who was doing the interview. No additional words from the former Letran Knight were needed. That’s confidence in your face, in my face, in everyone’s face. Forget sportsmanship; Enrico Villanueva might have won the Best Player of the Conference award that tourney but Kerby won everyone’s heart that very instant. We all shared his grievance… and we all laughed to death after.

After a decade, Kerby Raymundo through my Instagram post might have exclusively opened-up, shared his thoughts about the greatest post-game interview in the history of the PBA for the first time ever. “FIRST. TIME. EVER.” (para cool). I ripped the YouTube clip of his interview, posted it on my Instagram, I tagged him as well as Coach Webb and he, to my surprise replied:

That was straight from the Kevin Garnett of the Philippines. He basically talked to me. In his message, he counted the number of years that have passed since the emotional interview like a telenovela star looking for revenge against his evil madrasta and after that, he thanked me with a heart emoji. Never have I imagined that the, arguably, second best power forward in the history of my favorite PBA team will message me with a heart emoji. You know, I don’t get heart emojis from the woman (or girl) that I have a deep crush on but I got it from Kerby Raymundo.

After that, he admitted that he was still immature back in 2005; when he was 24 years old. I get that. I am turning 29 and I am still immature and walang kwenta. But personally, I don’t think it was immaturity. It was deep passion for the game that he loves. “Talo pikon!” he added. Yes. Purefoods Chunkee Giants with Marquin Chandler were defeated by Red Bull in that series but still, I don’t see it as being pikon, he was just being passionate and he was just expressing his opinion that no one that time can refute; not even the eventual season MVP James Yap.

However, in his comment, he told me that I should have not posted the clip since it’s not nice. He delivered “not nice” as if I was his son* who committed a petty wrongdoing. Yung parang tinago yung bagsak na test sa basura. And probably, to keep his comment cool, he added three monkey emojis. Perhaps, those three monkeys represent Yap, Marc Pingris and Peter June Simon. But I am not that sure. But the most important thing is that, we already have Kerby’s side about the issue and his reply to my post really made him the MVP in our hearts. Hindi lang sa sarili niya. [enter heart emoji]

One of the most exciting things that the PBA has done for its fans today is the surfacing of Philippine Slam*, a game for mobile devices created by Ranida Games a la NBA Jam (or NBA Hang Time which I like more). It’s nice because I never thought that the PBA will have an officially licensed video game. Okay na nga ako sa mods ng NBA Live and NBA 2K that started over a decade ago.

Like the classic video game created by Midway in the 90’s^, it has the 2-on-2, full-court gameplay with players that can dunk, jump and shoot like the members of Bioman. However, fans still clamor for a 5-on-5 game like NBA 2K. I think, malabo pa yun. Pero for now, this is how I think a 5-on-5 PBA Slam game would look like:

In a separate post, I will write my Philippine Slam wishlist. For now, this walang kwentang post muna. Hehe.

*The game is originally called PBA Slam but since the Professional Bowlers of America decided to file a complaint against the use of the name “PBA” which they own apparently, Ranida just decided to change the game’s title.

For some reasons, part of our department team building that was held last August 1 at a 3-star hotel in the streets of Makati is a dance-off to the tune of Gentleman, a nonsensical song of a certain North Korean guy who is also responsible for that one song that has billion of hits on YouTube which I personally consider as diabolical.

My camera, unfortunately or otherwise, was able to capture some of the highlights of the inter-division dance showdown and I put it all together in a video that runs for a minute and a half.

See it below. Supposedly, this video should be left unpublished online but since none of my officemates love me, no one treats me as a friend; no one knows that I have a blog, they will not see this anyway.

Despite having the disadvantage, the tough task of having to win twice against the higher-seeded GlobalPort Batang Pier, the Star Hotshots still managed to overcome the odds and advance to the next round.

With the Hotdogs rising, can the milk still explode? Semifinals between the underdog Hotshots and the #1 team in the Philippines, the Alaska Aces begin Wednesday, July 1.

If the NBA World Champions Golden State Warriors get their strength in numbers, the Star Hotshots of the PBA get theirs in hotdogs.

Let’s go, Star!

We had our company outing (sort of) last April 28 in Quezon. It was my first visit there and I had a lot of fun. Medyo malayo. You have to pass by different kinds of Laguna before reaching the place. Taga-Laguna ako pero hindi ko pa narinig yung ibang munisipalidad na dinaanan namin.

We stayed at Batis Aramin specifically in a room called Lambingan that I feel is inapt because there are around 10 beds there not suitable for intimate lambingan. We occupied two of those. Anyway, it’s a hotel and a resort with a shower that’s hard to operate. We also visited the famed Kamay ni Hesus, a refuge for our Roman Catholic homies chill and artsy enough to have your selfies.

I did a summer ID-esque video below to the tune of Calvin Harris’ “Summer.” I don’t know the song and the artist before I searched a summer themed song on Google but unlike the Lambingan room with ten beds, ito bagay sa tema. EDM yata tawag sa mga ganyang kanta.

Anyhow, enjoy the video even though it’s all, you know, messed up because Happylyn, my PC, can’t handle newer files anymore.

Here's myself and my main man, Isyong with MJ in an acrobatic, you-should-not-try-this-at-home, swaggy dunkfest. Enjoy!

Heading into December, I realized that I have only created two Facebook albums the entire year. That is an all-time low; very abnormal for a social media, matapang-lang-sa-internet kind of guy like me. I can put the blame on Instagram because I would rather post a single picture with filters and effects rather than posting a bunch that no one would really bother to look at. Or maybe, wala naman kasi talaga akong camera. Or wala naman akong kukuhaan. I lost a girlfriend this year and my camera got busted on our last date. Nasira yung pindutan tapos linagyan ko ng mighty bond, di na mapindot. Yung girlfriend, di naman nalagyan ng mighty bond. Three weeks after, iba na ang…

Talking about a miserable lovelife in a blog like this may sound a bit faggoty. It is, in fact. I am not supposed to do this but that’s really the theme of this year for me. Everything revolved around that. Things went berserk after the break-up. The departure of the late, great Eds is like the main event a la a Pacquiao fight na tumatak. I am now embracing the possibility of being a matandang binata. The term “impossible crush,” nauso na naman this year. Kaya lang ako yung tipong Merry Christmas na ang bati, di pa rin pinapansin. Na-si-seen lang sa Facebook.

But losing a syota does not mean that I will not complete the top ten photos of the year that I have been posting annually since 2009. Mayroon pa rin. Sampu pa rin. Wala nga lang nakakakilig. Sana next year meron na. 2015 is year of the GOAT! Year of the Michael Jordan and I am pretty optimistic!

Here are the top ten Marco Jose Manipon photos of the year:

10. #EsquireEheads

New Eraserheads songs after so many years? This is truly one of the highlights for all music and OPM fans this 2014.

9. NBA Café

Every NBA fan would really want to go to this specialty café and I had a chance to visit the place along with my online friends that I got to meet for the first time. Basketball runs in our blood.

8. The Return of Purefoods

After the triumphant four straight championship of the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers, my all-time favorite PBA franchise reverted to its old name as Purefoods and I got the chance to watch their first game back. Second half nga lang kasi may nagtangkang magpakamatay. This is also my first time to watch a live PBA game alone after quite some time.

7. Family Summer Outing

Any summer escapade with the family is fun. This year is no exception.

6. My 27th Birthday

This is probably the chilliest picture of me and my nephew, Isyong so far and it was taken on my birthday.

5. Company Summer Outing

Out of all the summer outings that I joined ever since I became a part of SB Cards, this one is the best yet. Almost all of us did not sleep all night. The place is hip as well. It’s not your typical resort.

4. First PBA on the road experience

Me and my cousin, Christian went to Alonte Sports Arena, a multi-purpose stadium that’s jeepney and tricycle away from where I am residing. This is my first chance to watch an out-of-town game. However, the two matches we witnessed were exhibition games only. But there’s San Mig Super Coffee and yeah, playing coach Manny Pacquiao, the fighting pride of the Philippines.

3. New Balance Power Run 2014

Fastest 10K run I ever did. Check this blog for more information: http://marcomanipon.com/post/102757292175

2. Trip to Zambales with the Aquinos

My main man, Robert Aquino invited me and another main man, Oliver Razalan to visit their province for his birthday. Truly a highlight this year. Any trip that lasts for 6 hours or so is incredible. We also had a chance to bond with his lovely sisters.

1. North Kalookan Homies Live in Biñan

My friends from the North visited me as part of my birthday celebration. It’s my homies first time to visit our place here in Laguna. That’s some serious chillness.

Thanks to Instagram, Robert Aquino, Oliver Razalan, Ruby Saldo, Christian Rosales and Ariel Morales for the pictures.

Last November 9, my North Kalookan homies, Roden, Oliver, Kuya Robert and I joined the 2014 edition of New Balance’s annual Power Run. It is my first time to join an organized running event after about 2 years.

Unlike before, I prepared for this run this time around. It is not really a preparation by Lydia de Vega or that guy from Temple Run standards but weeks prior the event, I did some practice runs around our subdivision and I even went to Luneta together with my homies to run. Parang dry run ba. We even cared about the food to eat before the run. Potassium and poultry were the words of the night prior the event. Potassium and poultry don’t sound as awkwardly as saging and itlog combined. It was also advised to eat pasta for carbohydrates intake, so for optimal performance we ate Jollibee Spaghetti. Pasta yun di ba? More than the finisher’s kit and the runner shirt that I will get after registration, this time I care about the result. Kahit pang-10K lang ako.

The Power Run was held at the Bonifacio Global City. The assembly time for us 10K runners was 4:45 a.m. and the gun start was at 5. What made that morning even more challenging were the drizzle and the wet road. Plus natatae pa ako.

North Kalookan Homeboys

But luckily, I still finished the run and achieved my personal best. My lowkey preparation somehow paid off. I finished the run in 1 hour and 9 minutes. It’s not something that I should really brag but that is an improvement from the 1 hour and 45 minutes finish in my first ever 10K run 3 years ago. Also, I ranked 186th out of all 783 who joined the 10K run. I remember in 2012 when I joined Nike We Run Manila 10K run, I ranked 2,275th. The fastest 10K runner finished the race in 35 minutes and 38 seconds. Mas natatae siguro siya.

Hanapin ang epal

I am looking forward to my next organized run. I hope I could finish it in less than an hour. Pero dapat cool pa rin yung t-shirt.