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Captain Fabio
Last Activity: December 4th, 2018 11:02 AM
About Me
- About Captain Fabio
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- Will
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View Captain Fabio's BlogRecent Entries
Latest Blog Entry
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 3:17 AM by Captain Fabio Comments 6
Hello everyone....
Some may remember me and others might not, but if you do then you might be surprised to know I might be more active from now on. PokemonGO has rekindled my love for the Universe, due to it being a breath of fresh air and nostalgic with the original 151(149 due to event only).
With Sun & Moon on the horizon, I've actually been looking forward to it and getting back into the franchise for the first time in around 5 years. It's interesting to see
Posted August 28th, 2014 at 12:32 PM by Captain Fabio Comments 3
How are things?
Posted March 12th, 2014 at 1:08 PM by Captain Fabio Comments 10
Well, I think it is time for me to step aside and let someone else have a shot at the Super Moderator position....
I have been on PC for a very long time and I have had a lot of good and bad memories here. Luckily, it has been more good memories and I still feel I am a shining example of how someone can change their ways if they really mean it. Things have been amazing with my time at PC and I don't regret it at all. Being Moderator of Video Games was so fun and always a tough job,
Posted September 26th, 2013 at 9:47 AM by Captain Fabio Comments 7
Hello all,
Just saying I am still around, I have just been very busy the past few months and I am moving to London for a new job on Saturday! :D
So, busy times, but I am still alive! :)
Just saying I am still around, I have just been very busy the past few months and I am moving to London for a new job on Saturday! :D
So, busy times, but I am still alive! :)
Posted April 21st, 2013 at 4:20 AM by Captain Fabio Comments 3
lol aren't I a joker... but seriously.
Recent Comments
Hey Will! Glad to see...
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 11:28 PM by Ivysaur
Originally Posted by Minerva
FABIOOOO. Yeah, Pokemon
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 10:41 AM by Captain Fabio
FABIOOOO. Yeah, Pokemon...
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 10:39 AM by Meganium
Originally Posted by Captain Fabio
Yeah, been good thanks.
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 8:26 AM by Overlord Drakow
Originally Posted by Overlord Drakow
This is quite interesting,
Posted July 10th, 2016 at 7:02 AM by Captain Fabio


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In response to the "early photos from your beginning" thread, what stupid things did you do before you knew better?
I had one friend that climbed Rainier in jeans, his first climb ever - he started up with another buddy after a ranger lent them ice axes and crampons because they didn't have either! They summitted (sans rope)! That must have been in the 1970s or so.
Another friend used to carry an iron skillet, and never carried a sleeping pad - until he froze his a$$ off on San Gorgonio sleeping on snow! "Something must be wrong," he thought haha.
And then there's me, on my first hike ever, Mt. Whitney. Picked up a used suitcase at REI (it had shoulder straps, looks good to me I thought), and carried that thing into camp. Well, I wheeled it the last few hundred feet...
We summitted, but boy was I clueless. I won't even mention the gear we carried. It was early season, and there were only 2-3 other parties on the mountain. A pair of older guys came over and gave us a few pointers. At the time I thought they were just nice guys, but looking back on it I bet they thought we were gonna die. We had a great time, and learned quickly after that.
For those that grew up hiking and/or climbing, I imagine it may seem impossible to be so naive, but some of us had no outdoor mentor, picked up a pack (or suitcase) and went for it.
Somebody please come up with something more embarrassing...

subset: commoncrawl


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The Geological Society of Australia recently updated its policy statement (PDF) on science education and creationism.
The third draft of Texas's science standards is available — and the creationist catchphrase "strengths and weaknesses" is absent.
When the Michigan legislature ended its last voting session for 2007-2008 on December 19, 2008, two antievolution bills — House Bill 6027 and Senate Bill 1361 — died in committee.
"The Evolution of Evolution: How Darwin's Theory Survives, Thrives and Reshapes the World" is the theme of the latest issue of Scientific American (January 2009), commemorating the bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the sesquicentennial of the publication of the Origin of Species — and NCSE is represented, with Glenn Branch and Eugenie C. Scott's discussion of the newest mutations of the antievolutionist movement in "The Latest Face of Creationism."
Salman Hameed of Hampshire College addressed the challenge of Islamic creationism in the December 12, 2008, issue of Science (322 [5908]: 1637-1638), warning (subscription required) that "although the last couple of decades have seen an increasing confrontation over the teaching of evolution in the United States, the next major battle over evolution is likely to take place in the Muslim world (i.e., predominantly Islamic countries, as well as in countries where there are large Muslim populations)."
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Being accountable for good preventive care
The plaque arrived on April 23, and it reads: "Texas Physician Practice Award presented to Southeast Texas Medical Associates, LLP for Providing Exceptional Preventive Health Care Services using Health Information Technology." Awarded by The Texas Physician Practice Quality Improvement Award Committee, the committed is made up of the TMF Health Quality Institute (Texas' CMS Quality Improvement Organization), the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Osteopathic Medical Association. Because our nurse practitioners are also included in the award, SETMA has recommended expanding the sponsoring organizations to include the Texas Nurses Association.
The committee commented further, "Congratulations on this significant accomplishment, which illustrates your commitment to delivering quality care to all patients. Your award demonstrates that SETMA has an exceptional team."
"Quality care to all patients" is one of the major goals of healthcare reform and one of the foundational principles of an ACO. This award is also an affirmation of SETMA's decision in 2000 to begin tracking quality metrics performance and our 2009 decision to begin public reporting of performance by provider name. The results are now posted on SETMA's website www.setma.com under Pubic Reporting for 2009-13.
Value equation
The value equation is at the heart of the quality process, i.e., value equals quality divided by cost. Value can be increased by improving quality of care and/or by decreasing the cost of care, or both. In its March 2013 brief, the Commonwealth Fund tied payment reform to accountability for improved care. They recommended that providers and accountable care organizations (ACOs) should be eligible for additional payment if practices participate in "a high-value ACO," "bundled payment arrangement," or other "innovative models of health care delivery." Also in March, the Commonwealth Fund addressed accountability for quality in a paper titled "Early Adopters of the Accountable Care Model: A Field Report on Improvements in Health Care Delivery."
Triple aim and integrators of care
Increasingly, health plans and particularly Federal programs are requiring evidence of quality performance with reimbursement tied to that evidence. In 2007, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) enunciated The Triple Aim for the future of healthcare which is: improved health, improved care, lower cost. IHI identified "integrators" of health as being organizations which move healthcare by pursing healthcare transformation and innovation. Three of those "integrators" have defined sets of quality measures which must be met in order to receive maximum reimbursement; they are:
1. Medicare Advantage - STARS Program - 53 Quality Metrics (This is not to be confused with IHI's STAARS Program, which is working to decrease hospital readmissions.)
2. Patient-Centered Medical Home - National Quality Forum endorsed measures - 10 required by NCQA
3. Accountable Care Organizations - 33 define quality metrics
There is significant overlap to these requirements. SETMA reports on numerous quality measures and groups of measures - NCQA, PCPI, AQA, HEDIS, NQF, Guidelines Advantage, Hospital Core Measures, Bridges to Excellence for multiple disease processes, PQRS, Joslin Diabetes, SETMA Developed Measurement Sets, STARS, and ACO measurements.
SETMA's Quality Metrics Philosophy
1. Quality metrics are not an end in themselves. Optimal health at optimal cost is the goal of quality care. Quality metrics are simply "sign posts along the way." They give directions to health. And the metrics are like a healthcare "Global Positioning Service": it tells you where you want to be; where you are, and how to get from here to there.
2. The auditing of quality metrics gives providers a coordinate of where they are in the care of a patient or a population of patients.
3. Statistical analytics are like coordinates along the way to the destination of optimal health at optimal cost. Ultimately, the goal will be measured by the well-being of patients, but the guide posts to that destination are given by the analysis of patient and patient-population data.
4. There are different classes of quality metrics. No metric alone provides a granular portrait of the quality of care a patient receives, but all together, multiple sets of metrics can give an indication of whether the patient's care is going in the right direction or not. Some of the categories of quality metrics are: access, outcome, patient experience, process, structure and costs of care.
5. The tracking of quality metrics should be incidental to the care patients are receiving and should not be the object of that care. Consequently, the design of the data aggregation in the care process must be as non-intrusive as possible. Notwithstanding, the very act of collecting, aggregating and reporting data will tend to create a Hawthorne effect.
6. The power of quality metrics, like the benefit of the GPS, is enhanced if the healthcare provider and the patient are able to know the coordinates while care is being received.
7. Public reporting of quality metrics by provider name must not be a novelty in healthcare but must be the standard. Even with the acknowledgment of the Hawthorne effect, the improvement in healthcare outcomes achieved with public reporting is real.
8. Quality metrics are not static. New research and improved models of care will require updating and modifying metrics.
SETMA's clinical decision support
On our MA STARS and ACO Quality Metrics tools, the legend is:
• If the measure applies to the patient and has been done, it is in black
• If the measure applies to the patient and has not been done, it is in red.
• If the measure does not apply to the patient, it is in grey.
If a provider wishes to review the content of each metric, he/she can click on "view" and it will show what it takes to fulfill the metric. This makes it possible for the provider, at the point of service, during the office visit, to measure their own performance for what ever "integrator" of care in which the provider is working.
The Clinical Decision Support tool is for general preventive and screening functions, while another tool is for the Medicare Advantage STARS Program, and another is for the ACO Quality Metrics requirements
Why not cheat?
• If you are going to be given a test, and
• If you are given the test questions before hand, and
• If the test is an open-book examination, and
• If there is no time limit for the test,
Why not "cheat?" Look up the answers before the test so that you know what your performance is before you go into the test. Don't wait until an insurer or an ACO measures your HEDIS performance, or your performance on an ACO measurement set; know your performance before hand by measuring it yourself. In fact, know your performance at the time you see a patient.
Of course, ethically and morally, there is no "cheating" in this context. The test is not measuring what you know, but it is measuring what you have access to and what you pay attention to. The test is not measuring what you remember, but it is measuring what you are reminded of. Consequently, if you have Clinical Decision Support tools (CDS) that remind you of what needs to be done and if you have CDS tools that allow you to measure your own performance at the point of care, it is obvious that you can consistently improve your performance.
Being accountable for good preventive care? That's easy, which makes the future of ACOs and other "healthcare integrators" bright.


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Saint Lucian artist and environmentalist, Dr. Christopher Cox, began painting wildlife and environmental themes when he joined the St. Lucia Forestry Department in 1985, shortly after leaving school. His professional specialization is in the field of water resources and watershed management. Over the years Chris not only worked in Saint Lucia, but also across the Caribbean, assisting countries in improving the management of their water resources. He joined UN Environment (UNEP) based in Nairobi Kenya in December 2014, where he focusses on addressing marine pollution. Countless hours of fieldwork in the most remote forests in Saint Lucia initially awakened his appreciation for the stunning diversity of plants, animals and landscapes. ...
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This is a collection of mathematics problems relating to the moons of the solar system. Learners will use simple proportional relationships and work with fractions to study the relative sizes of the larger moons in our solar system, and explore how... (View More) temperatures change from place to place using the Celsius and Kelvin scales. (View Less)
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Learners will build an open spectrograph to calculate the angle the light is transmitted through a holographic diffraction grating. After finding the desired angles, the students will design their own spectrograph using the information learned. The... (View More) activity is part of Project Spectra, a science and engineering program for middle-high school students, focusing on how light is used to explore the Solar System. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $10 - $20 per group of students


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Keeping your tires at the recommended pressure puts efficiency—and safety—first. Properly inflated tires don't overheat, they last longer, and they help you get better gas mileage. Plus, all tire specs and requirements are developed to work with your vehicle's other suspension, steering and body components to ensure maximum comfort, safety, handling, and braking efficiency.
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Paul and every member of his shop deserve an A+ in customer service.
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Jen Navarez of Baltimore Maryland
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I have no reservation about recommending this shop to my friends.
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Wendy Simmons of Baltimore Maryland
"My car needed to pass an free Maryland Uber inspection. They worked quickly and efficiently and got me back on the road, even with a minor repair completed. I highly recommend this professional business. I know if I needed breaks they offer Baltimore Break Repair Service ."
Paul, Dan, Steve, and Nick were very knowledgeable and able to solve the problem with the utmost care for the vehicle, and for quality, and time, and get me back on the road.
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Daniel Sprague of Nashville Tennessee
"I'm not the type of person that normally writes reviews. However, this trip deserved one. I was passing through Baltimore on the way back to Nashville, TN, when all of a sudden my brakes on my '65 Mustang gave out. AAA recommended this shop, so I sent my car there, and they were fantastic. A lot of shops won't work on cars this old -- but Paul, Dan, Steve, and Nick were very knowledgeable and able to solve the problem with the utmost care for the vehicle, and for quality, and time, and get me back on the road. I'D TRUST ANY CAR WITH THEM."
I know that the best work will be done in the most timely manner.
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Linda Siegman of Baltimore Maryland
"Thank you and the staff at A1 Auto Three Brothers Car Repair for an outstanding vehicle service experience. I was immediately put at ease by the prompt and courteous reply to my online request for a service appointment. I listed several items to be covered and your willingness to discuss each of them with me, at length, (and the fact that you actually listened) set the benchmark far and above any previous experience I have had at the dealer or other advertised place. Calling me frequently with updates was very much appreciated, and the fact that you would not proceed with any additional work without my approval is a very appealing quality of well-conducted business. I am very much looking forward to the next time I have to have my car in for service because I know that the best work will be done in the most timely manner on that which is most necessary."
The most trustworthy and caring mechanics I've EVER known in all my years of driving.
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Baltimore Maryland
Cheryl Moulton of Baltimore Maryland
"I've been coming to A1 Auto Three Brothers Car Repair in Baltimore for about 10 years now, and am currently on my fourth car with Paul and the guys here. I wouldn't go anywhere else, because these are the most trustworthy and caring mechanics I've EVER known in all my years of driving. Cheers!"
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Bernard H
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"I went to A1 being inquisitive while joking with them, "How did you get an A+ rating from BBB when I couldn't get that rating as a student?" Well I am very pleased, they give excellent, knowledgeable, friendly and prompt service. They made my old 2004 Impala gallop once more. A great place to do business! "
You are an outstanding example of what honesty and sincere appreciation of a customer means in business today.
Al Schipper
Battle Creek Michigan
Al Schipper of Battle Creek Michigan
"Recently you recieved a Buick Regal into your buisness that had problems with its brakes. The owner of the vehicle is Beverly Kelley, Chaplain here at our hospital. She and her daughter Robin had just dropped off a father and his daughter Erin at the McElderly House on McElderly Street as Erin is scheduled for an organ transplant at Johns Hopkins in the next couple of weeks. When they began their return trip to Michigan they discovered that their car had serious problems with its brakes. After making several calls to other auto repair shops Beverly called you and new quickly that your business was where she wanted her car to be towed. I want to recognize you and your employees for the outstanding care and service-above and beyond-that they received from you. Another story could possibly have been told as the two ladies were in an unfamiliar place completely vulnerable to a necessary repair to their car in order to make a safe return trip. You took them 'under your wing' and provided them care and attention as if they were family. In addition, the after service follow up by calling them later in the day of their departure while they were on the road to be sure that everything was alright and that the brakes were functioning as they should in itself demonstrates the outstanding quality of your customer service. Today there are far too many small business owners who are focused only on how much they can make from each customer. You not only charged a fair and reasonable price for your repair service but also gave them outstanding customer service. You are an outstanding example of what honesty and sincere appreciation of a customer means in business today. The many of us here at Battle Creek Health System who have been supporting this family for nearly 3 years in their mission of saving their loved one's life share much gratitude for you and the wonderful care of our two volunteers who were on a mission of mercy for one of our own."
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Anthony Weston, Professor of Philosophy, Elon University.Anthony Weston is the author of 'A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox', published 2007 under ISBN 9780195309676 and ISBN 0195309677.[read more]
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Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) is making a big push to sell more Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhones. Starting Friday, the iPhone 5S will be available for $99 and the 5C will cost $29.
Continue Reading Below
To get the deal, customers are asked to activate a two-year plan with AT&T (NYSE:T), Sprint (NYSE:S), or Verizon (NYSE:VZ). The phones each have 16 GB of memory.
Apple is widely expected to announce new iPhones in September, so many Apple fans are waiting. Slashing prices may help demand in the interim.
Costco (NASDAQ:COST) began selling iPhones online this week, with the iPhone 5s models starting at $77.99. Most cell phone providers charge about $199 for the iPhone 5s 16GB phone.
T-Mobile (NYSE:TMUS) has also been making an effort to lure potential iPhone customers. Last week, the company launched seven-day free trials for the iPhone 5S.
The next generation of iPhones are expected to have larger screens, as reported by Bloomberg. The current iPhone has a 4 inch display, but the upcoming iPhones are expected to come in 4.7 inch and 5.5 inch sizes.
Apple shares are up 14% year-to-date and are currently trading around $91, following a recent stock split. Apple's market cap is $551 billion.


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THE TOUGH CUSTOMER- 240 percent: Why the AG's looking at car loans
When I first looked into Estelle Williams' car title loan from Instant Cash on High Street, I was surprised ["Predatory practices? Car title lender backpedals," December 13]. Perhaps I'm naïve, but how, I wondered, could a loan with a 240 percent interest rate be legal?
Well, it turns out that not only is it legal, but the entire car-title lending industry in Virginia is completely unregulated.
E. Joseph Face, Commissioner of the Virginia Bureau of Financial Institutions (BFI), explains that car title lenders typically structure their deals as open-end credit– similar, at least in theory, to a credit card– which removes them from the purview of his or any other state agency.
Not that regulation by the BFI would necessarily make much of a difference.
After all, the BFI regulates payday lenders, and the interest rates they charge are just as high, if not higher in many cases, as those charged for car title loans.
Even though the state registers and regulates its 800-plus payday lending offices, the law does not impose an interest rate cap on their lending.
But after taking a look at Williams' loan documents, Senator Creigh Deeds (D-Bath County) says a 240 percent interest rate, whether a payday or car-title loan, is "legalized loan-sharking... and from any perspective, that's unconscionable."
Payday and auto-title lenders argue, however, that they're frequently lenders of last resort for many people, and that they need high interest rates to turn a profit. Critics allege that the loans trap people in a cycle of high-cost debt from which they cannot escape.
Williams, for example, claims to have paid Instant Cash more than $1,000 over a period of 18 months, but barely made a dent in repaying the principal on her $230 loan.
Attempts by the General Assembly in past sessions to cap interest rates for payday loans at 36 percent have gone nowhere. Little wonder. The consumer lending industry is among the state's more generous political contributors, donating nearly $340,000 to legislators last year.
Deeds, however, thinks there may be a "legitimate chance" to pass a cap this year. He notes that the GOP leader in the House of Delegates recently said there is now a majority in support of a cap, and that the Democratic additions to the Senate increase support there as well, although a measure last year was able to garner only 11 votes.
An interest rate cap bill has already been pre-filed for the upcoming session.
As for the car-title lenders, an effort last year to regulate them died a quick death in committee, and the future of another one this year is uncertain now, according to both Deeds and Face.
Deeds says one concern he heard about regulating car-title lenders was that regulation would provide the industry with legitimacy, which could cause their numbers to proliferate and make the problem worse. That's what happened in 2002, when the state first regulated payday lenders.
Still, Deeds acknowledges car-title lenders are "out there... [and] we have to get a handle on that."
One state official willing to take on the industry, at least on an individual basis, is Attorney General Bob McDonnell. He investigated and settled cases with three car-title lenders last year, two in Virginia Beach and one in Northern Virginia. The settlements included interest refunds and forgiveness for borrowers.
In the Virginia Beach cases, the lenders' open-end credit didn't pass muster because they failed to provide a minimum 25-day grace period for borrowers to repay the loan without incurring a finance charge. That made the loans subject to the state's Consumer Finance Act with its 12 percent limit on allowable interest.
Seems like a clear enough requirement, but Williams' loan from Instant Cash clearly states, "There is no grace period on finance charges."
As I reported, when I started asking questions, Instant Cash canceled William's loan and returned her car. Nonetheless, her loan documents are now in the hands of the Attorney General's office, which has told me that consumer attorneys will take a look and get back to me.
In case you need it, the Attorney General's office can be reached via its website, oag.state.va.us, or 804-786-2071.


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Monday, August 1, 2011
Turned Out
20 comments:
very nice inspirationReplyDelete
oh my gosh it's great! i love all the photos. going to follow that site for sure :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 1, 2011 at 10:15 PM
incredible, thanks fer sharin'ReplyDelete
i love that they're not quite perfect. they aren't totally posed and edited to flawlessness. it really is great.ReplyDelete
I liked this photos, they are very unusual and simple at the same time, sometimes the essence of a good style is just to be ourselves! Sometimes i get angry when i see just perfect & planned pictures in the fashion blogs, i'm tired of seeing just magazine pictures, Thank You Pascal for this post!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousAugust 2, 2011 at 6:57 AM
omg i love this site so much its too sad that i cannot leave any comments thereReplyDelete
Lovely, thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
These are amazing! They're all quite simple, they look like very "honest" pictures to me.ReplyDelete
adore these pics, so fresh <3ReplyDelete
i love the photos especially black cap and boots in 2 photos are awesome and inspirational.ReplyDelete
I love them.
I totally love Maya's blog, her pictures and subjects are so 'real'. And she's really nice too...ReplyDelete
Wonderful looks! I really love the cyan blue blazerReplyDelete
nice blog.. wonderful looks :o))ReplyDelete
goorgeous photos!ReplyDelete
Maya is a New Zealander!ReplyDelete
Plus she is incredibly nice.
so great, thanks for sharing with us! Somehow all the photos look like they're from the '90s and some from the '70s and that I think is due to the photographer more than to the fact that they're taken on film! Such great perspective on street style photography!ReplyDelete
Lieber Pascal, vielleicht könnte dir mein Tumblr auch gefallen?ReplyDelete
Schau doch mal rein...
xx Paul & Coco
Great photos! I love the all the photos especially black cap and the skirt are awesome and inspirational.ReplyDelete
they all look very natural and the pictures are really beautifulReplyDelete
i love the style from the girl with the gray sweater and the simple jeans the most


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WSU Football Bio's
I can't picture what it must be like to be Marshall Lobbestael shoes right now. Imagine going from the highest of all highs in Oak Harbor, to hitting personal/professional lows while in Pullman.
Lobbestael's Cougars career was supposed to be something out of a Hollywood script.
A state champion that makes good by taking a staggering college program to the top. But the realities of injuries and bad decisions brought Lobbestael's WSU career to a sudden halt.
No longer was he the feel good story.
Lobbestael had found himself on the sidelines holding a clipboard. Something the Oak Harbor native never imagined he would be doing a whole lot of while in college.
No one could've imagined Marshall Lobbestael would have the type of freshman season he did when he arrived on the Washington State campus. Lobbestael made his college debut on October 6th, 2008 at home in a late mop up roll against Cal. Two weeks later Lobbestael came off bench to carry the Cougars to a 48-9 victory over Portland State.
The very next week against Oregon, Lobbestael would make his first collegiate start, finishing the game 22/41, 192 yards, 2 td's, 2 int's, 53.7%.
Signaling what was supposed to be the beginning of another great Cougars QB career.
In the words of ESPN's Lee Corso: "Not so fast my Friend"
After leading the team as a freshman in passing efficiency, 53/103, 571 yards, 4 td's, 4 int's, 51.5%, Lobbestael's 2008 freshman season would end with a torn knee ligament.
Heading into the 2009season, most thought head coach Paul Wulff would tab Lobbestael as his starting QB over Kevin Lopina. Instead Lopina would end up grabbing the starting position by default.
Due in part of a bad decision on the part of Lobbestael.
Earlier in the year Marshall Lobbestael was arrested by campus police for minor in possession after the sophomore QB was found passed out in the cab of his truck outside the police station.
The error in judgement completely derailed Lobbestael's collegiate career. Marshall would go on to make one start in 2009, a 30-27 overtime victory against Southern Methodist, but Lobbestael's season that was supposed to be, never got off the ground. Two weeks later on October 3rd, 2009, head coach Paul Wulff would name freshman QB Jeff Tuel his starter. Tuel wouldn't relinquished the position.
That's why I think this story feels so good. Because it is a case of an athlete who was supposed to be the next, but ended up being a never was. So when Lobbestael started the season opener against Idaho State for a sick Jeff Tuel, no one expected it to turn out the way it did. No on can foretell a freak injury.
But because of the Injury to Tuel, it has allowed the former state champion to step up and complete the circle that started with such high expectations.


text:
The Biggest Little Man in the World
What do you get when you cross Muhammad Ali, Sly Stallone, Vaclav Havel, Michael Vick, Che Guevara, & Clay Aiken? Manny Pacquiao
He is in the car. I am in the car. Physically we are, both of us, in the car. Still, I wonder.
It's now January. In December, I spent a week traversing the Philippine archipelago in a vain attempt to speak with this man. Though it is difficult to arrive at an exact number, it is safe to say that during that week, slightly less than half the national population of 90 million people assured me with a wink that they would get me "in the car" with Manny Pacquiao. But there had been no car. No Manny Pacquiao. (Pronounced like a comic-book sound effect: pack-ee-ow!) I did spend the afternoon of the man's thirty-first birthday in his living room, playing a series of increasingly aggressive Christmas carols on his Yamaha grand piano in a last-ditch effort to flush him from his bedroom. (It was five in the afternoon. He had risen for the day an hour earlier.) But there was no Manny. At 6 p.m., in a single brisk movement, he descended from the balcony—eerily reminiscent of the one on which Al Pacino dies after screaming, "Say hello to my lee-tle frien'!" in Scarface—and out to a waiting caravan. He brushed my shoulder without looking at me as he passed. Or did he? Later, I could not shake my suspicion that the shoulder brush, the whole trip, was a dream. A vivid dream, of a place where every soul and every thing was lit from within by the still, small voice of Manny Pacquiao—Manny… Emmanuel…Hebrew for "God is with us"— but where Manny Pacquiao himself was nowhere to be seen.
But now, at a promotional event in Texas, the first bor ever to win seven world titles in as many weight divisions, the first athlete ever to appear on a Philippine postage stamp, a man who in 2008 portrayed the Philippine warrior Lapu-Lapu, whose forces killed Magellan and repelled his conquistadores, in a reenactment of the 1521 Battle of Mactan, a man who often survives on three hours' sleep and is said to possess a photographic memory, is "in the car." As am I.
"Manny," I begin, "one of the many reasons GQ wants to feature you is that we want to explain why your appeal in the United States extends far beyond the sport of boxing. Do you have a theory about this?"
The members of his posse, encircling him at ten, two, three, four, six, eight, and nine o'clock, lean in and look. Nothing about the man moves. He remains perfectly postured, eyes forward, arms crossed, the vertical of his chassis aligned with, determining, the center of the SUV's bench seat and of the vehicle itself. Time passes.
"Manny," I begin again, "are you aware that millions of people in this country who don't follow boxing follow you?" I can see myself reflected in his oversize mirrored Oakleys. I look ridiculous.
After a time, the tiniest parting of the lips, just a sliver of a shadow between them, and a low exhalation:
Then Manny Pacquiao tilts his head back several degrees to indicate the departure of his presence.
It is then, at long last, that a phrase Pacquiao's people use to explain his mysterious ways—which isn't an explanation at all but a surrender—begins to seem adequate.
Because he is Pacquiao.
After the car ride, we all fly to New York on his promoter's plane. There is great consternation in the hangar prior to departure. Five men huddle over a small package. They look ashen, cancer-stricken. A decision is reached. The tallest of them, a Canadian named Michael Koncz, takes the package and marches, as if toward his own death, onto the airplane.
After takeoff, Koncz opens the package. It's Manny's dinner. Koncz presents the dish to Pacquiao and, in a tone born more in sorrow than in anger, announces that something has gone terribly wrong; instead of rice, the chef has accompanied Manny's meat with mashed potatoes. Manny nods. "I'm so sorry, Manny," Koncz says as he begins to cut Pacquiao's steak and season his cooked vegetables for him. "The bread is very soft, though." Manny prays, eats. After, he reposes on a couch. As one member of Team Pacquiao begins to massage his feet, calves, and thighs, Koncz drapes him in a blanket, methodically but gently tucking its edges in.
"And now," Manny Pacquiao says to me with a lovely smile, "you talk."
You're not a boxing fan? Doesn't matter. We're all fans of the strange, hardwired to seek and behold it—and Manny Pacquiao is the most beautifully strange human being to befall boxing, and perhaps even all of sport, in a generation.
Beautiful and strange to the eye, of course. That speed! The coil and float. The spooky slowing of time. The suspicion he creates in you that your naked eye only partially apprehends him—that what he does in the ring exceeds your spectrum.
And beautifully strange on paper. At the elite level, a bor's optimal fighting weight involves a trade-off of speed and power. Particularly in the lighter weight classes, a bor who enters the ring thirty-two ounces over or under his natural fighting weight is often too slowed or weakened to win. Despite such parameters, Pacquiao has won divisions ranging from flyweight, a belt he won in 1998 as a 112-pound 19-year-old, to welterweight, a division that tops out at 147 pounds, in November 2009. (He began his career in 1995, as a 16-year-old, 106-pound light flyweight.) On March 13, he'll defend his welterweight belt against the Ghanaian fighter Joshua Clottey. According to every metric, Pacquiao…can't be. Which is why, over the past fifteen years, the expert nay-saying has come even from his own corner. "I would think that Manny can fight at 140. But I think going past 140 would be a mistake," Pacquiao's promoter, Bob Arum, told ESPN in December 2008. "Every time I think of Manny in a ring with [Puerto Rican welterweight] Miguel Cotto… it begins to look a little ludicrous." In other words, even Pacquiao's supernatural speed wouldn't matter. A natural welterweight like Cotto would register the punches as love taps; Pacquiao, in turn, would be crushed.
Just eleven months later, a 144-pound Pacquiao met Cotto at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. As always, that strange beauty was fully on display in his combinations. But it was also present in a deeper, almost undetectable way. Only a few people in Pacquiao's camp caught on, and even then not while their man was in the ring.
"About five hours before the fight, I asked him how he was feeling," says Jayke Joson, who identifies himself as the chief of staff of Team Pacquiao, the fighter's entourage. "I thought maybe he didn't hear, because he didn't say anything. But then he said, real quiet, 'I want to feel my training.' I said, 'Okay, Manny, what do you mean?' He just smiled and said, 'I feel curious.' "
Only later that night, hours after the fight had ended, did he see how Pacquiao's cryptic pronouncements explained the first two rounds. To those in Pacquiao's corner, they were terrifying rounds. To their surprise, Cotto was moving beautifully, cutting off his lighter, faster opponent, steering him into a retreating posture and into the ropes. Having turned Pacquiao into a nonmoving target, Cotto unleashed everything he had— and connected. To the ribs, the gut, the head. Big undiluted punches, bigger than any Pacquiao had ever endured, the kind of hits experts claimed he could never withstand, the kind his own promoter had deemed so "ludicrous" that he'd never subject his fighter to them. From the corner, Pacquiao's longtime trainer, Freddie Roach, screamed, "Son! Son! Son! Don't play with him! Stop it!"
And then, early in the third round, quite abruptly, he did. And how: In the slo-mo hi-def replays of Pacquiao's most vicious flurries in that round and those that followed, the dislocation and snapback of Cotto's face wasn't just "ludicrous." It was horrific. Here was Cotto, a world-class welterweight, every square inch of him taut. Yet Pacquiao's punches kept shifting Cotto's whole face off its foundation—almost an inch, it looked like—creating a fractional second during which a fun-house Silly Putty version of the man's unmoored visage jiggled and warped before reafixing itself to his skull. It was impossible to keep the thought at bay: If Pacquiao doesn't stop, he's going to hit Cotto's face off.
Hours after Pacquiao's twelfth-round win by technical knockout, Joson recalled Pacquiao's words. Manny was curious. So curious, Joson realized, that even with his place in boxing history and tens of millions of dollars in the balance, Pacquiao decided to violate Roach's fight plan.
"I wanted to feel his power," Pacquiao tells me on the plane ride. The question seems to discomfit him. Too private? His answer, spoken with lowered eyes, feels less an explanation than an admission. "I just needed to know. For myself."
Consider that—a bor attempting to join his spectators in watching himself in real time, and with the same question: Is there a limit to this man's ability?
"Do you know what Manny Pacquiao does in between rounds at the MGM Grand, where they have the big screens up?" Roach says. "He watches himself. I have to slap him in the face and say, 'Manny, look at me!' "
Is it vanity? Or only vanity? It may be worth noting that in the hours leading up to a fight, Manny Pacquiao does not feel nervous. Nor does he harden his face into a warrior's mask. He sings. Rousingly ("La Bamba"). Tenderly ("Sometimes When We Touch"). He stops singing only when the priest arrives to conduct Mass. During the prayers, Manny does not petition for a victory— only for a good fight, and for the safety of his opponent and himself.
"Manny has never needed to hate his opponents," says Miles Roces, a former Philippine congressman and current member of Team Pacquiao. "There's no chip on his shoulder. He just wants to play."
Once the priest departs, the singing resumes. He sings his way out of the dressing room and into the arena, and the music doesn't stop until he's in the ring and the mouth guard goes in.
"Manny Pacquiao likes to be happy," Roach explains. "And when Manny Pacquiao is happy, that motherfucker can fight."
You think that when you talk about Manny Pacquiao, you're talking about just an athlete? You're not. You're talking about a man born to Dickensian tin-shanty poverty in General Santos City, a dry-baked scab on the Philippine nation's equatorial bottom. You're talking about a man who spent every hour of his childhood stomach-hungry, shoeless, and stinking. A man whose father abandoned the home when he was a toddler, stayed away for many years, showed up one day for several hours, just long enough to cook and eat his son's dog, then vanished again. A man who never finished school and left for Manila as a teen not because he was pulled, not because others sensed a destiny in him, but because he felt duty-bound to decrease the mouths under his mother's roof. This may be the strangest twist in Pacquiao's athletic history: He grew up in a nation where the cultivation of boxing talent amounts to a civic duty, yet those who saw him compete as a boy considered Pacquiao, at best, a local talent. After arriving in Manila at the age of 14, he spent a year selling doughnuts in the street, working construction, training in a gym, at times sleeping under a bridge swaddled in newspapers—and fighting for one-hundred-peso purses (about two U.S. dollars) in illegal back-alley brawls. You're talking about a man whose consciousness was reduced to the purely physical by the time he hit puberty, a nasty little fighting cock, everything about him that could have been supple and imaginative scraped down to and off the bone…yes? Well, no. By all rights, that's how this guy's life should have unfolded. But then that other element, the strange—which meant this was a fighter who often subjected the gym where he trained to…speeches.
"Sometimes there'd be somebody there, sometimes there was nobody else around as far as he knew, but it didn't matter to Manny— he was dreaming out loud," says Nick Giongco, who handles the Pacquiao beat for the Manila Bulletin. "He would announce himself as the mayor and speak about his plans for improving things. He would move his arms around like a politician. I could never tell if he was just trying to entertain himself or if he was, you know, practicing."
The latter, it's now clear. Pacquiao's March 13 fight was originally slotted for May, but moved after Manny announced his candidacy for a national congressional seat. His political ambitions (he lost a previous race in 2007) feed the strange mainly by way of contrast. To appreciate this contrast, one must understand the tectonic, archetypal figure Manny Pacquiao has become to his countrymen. A seemingly ridiculous comparison is anything but: As commercially and symbolically and narratively huge as Michael Jackson was in America in 1984 in the wake of Thriller, his hugeness pales next to that of Manny Pacquiao in the Philippines at this very moment.
Consider the elements. Consider that in the Philippines, the Roman Catholic devotion and the talent for and aesthetic of violence run deep, and are not unrelated. Consider that Manny Pacquiao is both the Philippines' most visibly pious Roman Catholic and its most accomplished practitioner of violence. Consider that Manny Pacquiao, whom one former Philippine congressman describes as the country's "most important source of social welfare," is also its most enthusiastic cockfighter (it's a legal and beloved pastime there) and has constructed a private training compound for his warrior birds. Consider that Manny Pacquiao is… you surely saw this coming…a pop singer with two platinum albums in a nation in which karaoke singing is serious fucking business—in which breaches of karaoke etiquette actually get people killed, and where over the past decade poorly received karaoke performances of Paul Anka's signature tune have generated half a dozen murders now known as the "My Way" killings.
You could consider many other elements— that he's a Philippine action-film star, or his weekly sitcom, Show Me the Manny, or that the birthday party he throws for himself and 3,000 of his dearest friends (including several of his former opponents, whose expenses he covers, as well as the country's president) every year is to the Philippines what the Super Bowl is to America, or that he spends thousands of dollars a day feeding anyone who comes to his door, or that he loves to gamble and plays billiards at a world class level—but none of that is required.
What is required, firstly, is an understanding that everything Manny Pacquiao does, is, and represents is amplified a thousandfold by way of being annealed in the crucible of Third World poverty. Secondly, what is required is an awareness of the way the national narratives this man embodies—the one springing from his boxing career and Christian good works, the other from his political aspirations— contradict each other. Simply put: Manny Pacquiao is his nation's favorite son. In his excellence, in his humility, in his impeccable sportsmanship, in his unreconstructed boyishness, he represents to his fellow Filipinos everything about their nation that could be, and maybe even is, uncorrupted.
"We Filipinos are not accustomed to this kind of story," says Roces, the former Philippine congressman. "We're too used to everything on the front page being negative. As Manny has risen through the weight classes, nobody has doubted him more than Filipinos. We expect our public figures to falter. It's incredible, but for a long time the people who loved Manny Pacquiao the most, his own people, were the ones who least believed in him." What's more, Pacquiao is an unimaginably wealthy self-made man who could easily make himself even wealthier by moving to the United States to decrease his tax liabilities and multiply his endorsement opportunities. This is, in fact, the Philippine way, and has been for more than a hundred years; Filipinos who dream of building better lives for themselves and their families go to America and send money home. But this is not Manny Pacquiao's way. Because…he is Manny Pacquiao. And Manny Pacquiao has chosen to find his bliss at home. "Not just in the Philippines," says Abac Cordero, who covers boxing for The Philippine Star. "In his hometown. The place he started. You cannot understand how this has stunned us Filipinos. That Manny Pacquiao chose us."
Yet Manny Pacquiao's decision to make his country his home stuns Filipinos far less than his political forays. "Take Manny Pacquiao out of the equation and then tell me: Who is the first person you think of when you hear 'Filipino'?" Cordero asks, before quickly (and correctly) answering for me. "Marcos. This is how the world knows us. By our corrupt political clans that have been around for centuries. This is how we know ourselves. And Manny Pacquiao, the most beloved figure in the country, talks of going there? It makes his people fear for him."
It's the strangest thing: Pacquiao was routed in his run for public office two years ago in part because voters revered him too much to elect him.
This cognitive dissonance, the way Manny Pacquiao channels two mutually contradicting national narratives—it's not academic. Manny himself concedes that last fall, a Philippine mayor named Andal Ampatuan enjoyed a ringside view of his demolition of Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas. Two weeks later, Ampatuan's father, a former provincial governor irked by a political challenger to the Ampatuan clan's long-standing dominance, allegedly decided enough was enough and ordered his son to "take out" the man that very day and, if necessary, anybody "with him." There turned out to be quite a few "withs" on November 23, the day Ampatuan allegedly carried out his father's order—fifty-seven in all, including thirty journalists. (Though not the target himself, who knew he was in danger and had sent his wife and daughter, whom he presumed would be considered untouchable, to register his candidacy.) According to survivors, the mayor "thoughtfully" considered each plea for mercy, then laughed "at the top of his voice" as he delivered his verdicts at close range.
If last fall's victory over Cotto, who punches as hard as any true welterweight, was Pacquiao's most daunting, his domination of Oscar De La Hoya in December of 2008 was his most iconic. (For background on that fight, read Peter Owen Nelson's series of essays on vanityfair.com.) "People were telling me I should be ashamed of myself because Oscar was going to kill him," Roach says. "Even [Arum's] matchmakers were saying, 'Come on, it's not even a fight. It's irresponsible.' " As well they should have; over fifteen years, Pacquiao had added more than a third of his original fighting weight to his frame. This should have made him as strong as a bull and as agile as a hippo. But something Roach had done, a by-product of complicating him, of turning him from a one-dimensional brawler with limitless physical courage and a savage left hook into an ambidextrous threat who now thought and fought with his feet—who posed as much of a threat when he was separating from an opponent's body as he did when he was advancing into it—had sped him up. Dislocated him from the weight of that accumulated muscle while still allowing him to tap its power.
Though the ref called the De La Hoya fight after eight rounds, anyone watching knew it was over after sixty seconds. And its meaning was set: De La Hoya, who for fifteen years had justly been called "the best of his generation," was done, supplanted. After the Cotto fight, the default terminology for Pacquiao has been further augmented. Forget "generation," or even the qualifying "pound for pound": The five-foot-six Pambansang Kamao—"National Fist"—of the Philippines is arguably the best athlete ever to don gloves.
"I used to say that Ali was the best I'd ever seen," says Arum, an industry legend who co-promoted the Ali-Frazier "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975. "I had never said that about another man. I don't use those words cheaply. But here it is: Manny Pacquiao is the best I have ever seen, including Ali. I have never seen the combination of this incredible speed, this crippling punching power, and the concentration he has in the ring. Nobody has. No one has ever moved the way he does. No one has been so equally potent with the right and left hand. If this were baseball, we would be talking about a switch-hitter who bats .400 from both sides of the plate."
Do note that qualifying "arguably" several lines above—and know that it would have inarguably been banished had Pacquiao beat the great 40-0 welterweight, Floyd Mayweather, on March 13. To the ongoing disbelief of boxing fans all over the world, however, the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight, the most anticipated fight since Ali met Foreman in the Congo, the richest (some $35 million per fighter, conservatively) and most watched (given likely pay-per-view numbers) fight in the history of the planet, the fight that couldn't not happen…didn't. Instead, there is Joshua Clottey. The reasons the fight with Mayweather fell through are stupid and ugly. And juvenile. And strange.
The strange of Manny Pacquiao! In December a Team Pacquiao "rep" instructed this magazine to place its writer at Manila's Mandarin Oriental hotel "on Monday." Manny would be "ready at 2:00." So I traveled to the Philippines. (Didn't I?)
Manny Pacquiao may be a figure of international import who in his own country represents everyone and everything. But nobody in his country represents Manny Pacquiao. Many purport to. Guarantees are made, places and times named. And then…nothing.
At first there was disappointment. The call at one forty-five informing me that "he's running late." And then, an hour later, a similar call. Then another. As one "meet" after another fell through, disappointment became concern. And then, as ever more basic questions proved unanswerable—Is Manny in Manila? Is Manny in the country? Has Manny actually agreed to be profiled by GQ_? Does Manny even exist? Do I?_—frustration, irritation, indignation. But in the end, sympathy. Though Manny's men did not represent him in any workaday sense, they clearly believed they did. There was no bad faith. Only madness.
Who gives a shit about some writer's logistical snafus, right? Yet to understand all that is Pacquiao, one must understand the epical dysfunction of his entourage. Because the entourage is the everyday manifestation of the larger Pacquiao "thing"—the way the two narratives he carries within him obliterate each other, matter and antimatter.
Take Luis "Chavit" Singson. The Governor, they call him, though he no longer holds that office. He's a 68-year-old tobacco magnate and one of the most powerful men in the Philippines. He's Manny's main political sponsor and a close friend—the kind admitted into the ring after fights. The Governor takes care of things for Manny. Actually, the Governor takes care of all sorts of things, some of which he speaks about with surprising candor. Say, the millions of dollars in gambling kickbacks he gave to former Philippine president Joseph Estrada. Or beating up his mistress. Last summer, the Governor found her with a younger man. He and a number of cohorts allegedly rectified this situation with (among other implements) a tiger whip.
"I beat up both of them!" the Governor cheerfully told a radio interviewer in September, after a picture of the mistress, her face looking like a lasagna, appeared on the front page of The Philippine Star. "It's good I'm not ruthless," he added. "I didn't kill them."
The Governor was gracious enough to fly me and some two dozen other members of Team Pacquiao from Manila to General Santos for Manny's birthday party. We sat together. Later, one Team Pacquiao member expressed surprise that the Governor hadn't shown me the picture in his wallet.
"Who's it of ?" I asked.
"That guy's dick."
"After the Governor's guys had laid it on a table and whacked it with a hammer. It had to be surgically cut off after. Too mauled."
On the plane, I asked the Governor about Manny. "Girls squeal" in Pacquiao's presence, he remarked. "Like the sound of a pig being slaughtered!" But after a few minutes he changed the subject. "I have twelve tiger. When I home, I swim with them every day. But now I want to make liger, yes?" The product of a lion and a tiger. "So I bring lion in, and he do this, yes?" The Governor made a fucky-fucky motion with his right index finger and his closed left fist. "And he do, and he do. No liger. And so I make him do, and do some more. And then…acchhhhh!"
The Governor clasped his hands to his heart and rolled his eyes back in their orbits; his lion stud had literally died of a cardiac infarction while being made to copulate for the umpteenth time with one of his tigresses.
"No liger," the Governor said dejectedly.
Or take Joe Ramos, who was also on the Governor's plane. (He's the one who'd advised me to be "ready" at the Mandarin Oriental. After several scheduled interviews didn't materialize, I'd sought help from other Team Pacquiao handlers, whose contempt for Ramos was matched only by their contempt that I had not gone to them first.) Joe is a close friend of Manny's. Manny says so. Multiple members of Team Pacquiao say Ramos stole a substantial amount of money from Manny. (Manny and Joe call the issue a misunderstanding.) According to these members, Manny told Joe he was angry and saddened by the betrayal, but that he forgave him. So Joe remained in the fold.
The thing is, a number of people have stolen from Manny, been caught by Manny, then been forgiven by Manny: Never has a fighter been possessed of so pacifistic a nature. What's more, there seems to be a consensus that these redeemed-Judas tableaux were… pre-scripted.
"He has made numerous people in his camp believe in God with what he's done," Ramos says. "Do you understand?"
Abac Cordero puts it more directly: "I think he was put here to make us better men. There is a feeling that those who betrayed him had to, so that Manny could teach them."
"Sometimes, the way things happen with Manny, it's like, parables," Ramos says. "Here's one: At the last training camp there were about thirty of us there. Now, one of my jobs is to lower the overall costs of living. So we go to this Thai restaurant next to [Roach's gym]. Our bill there was between $500 and $700 every day. So I said, 'Manny, why don't we buy some food from the local Philippine restaurant and have it delivered to your apartment? It'll only cost about $150.' Manny took me by the shoulders and in front of everybody said, 'Don't ever mess with another man's livelihood. Now let us enjoy their food.' "
It is difficult for an American to comprehend the degree to which Manny Pacquiao keeps his disciples close. Not just emotionally but bodily. When training in Los Angeles, where Roach's gym is located, Pacquiao rarely stays in the home he recently purchased. Instead, some fifteen members of Team Pacquiao—an ever metastasizing organism currently comprising about three dozen men—stays in a dingy two-room apartment.
"Whoever's on the best terms with Manny at that moment sleeps closest to him, at the foot of his bed," Roach says. "You think I'm joking? The first time I went to the Philippines, they put four guys in my room. I said, 'What is this bullshit? I want my own room.' And they were like, 'Team Pacquiao likes to be together!' So I wound up in the bed, and these…guys, helpers, sparring partners, Manny's brother, Bobby, slept on the floor."
Why is it that the closer Manny Pacquiao brings his people to his bosom, the more incapable they become of speaking for him, representing him, even knowing him?
"Because they're scared," Roach says. "Nobody wants to be the guy who asks Manny the question that might irritate him on a particular day. If you're the guy who says, 'Manny, you're supposed to fly to Manila today,' and Manny doesn't want to hear it, you might not be the guy who gets to fluff his rice."
Last year Manny was supposed to throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game. Dodgers management worked out the details with Team Pacquiao. Manny Pacquiao didn't show up. He wasn't even in the country.
No one ever told him.
"For the last fight, I couldn't get an answer about where we were going to train," Roach says. "I'd gotten all the sparring partners a month in advance. Finally, four days before training was supposed to start, I got Koncz on the phone in the Philippines and said, 'Where are we doing this?' The answer was, 'Yeah, well, we haven't asked him yet.' You haven't asked him yet? Two days later, Manny flew to the States for a press conference. I said, 'Where are we training, Manny?' He says, 'Baguio.' Okay, done deal. I mean, this is his boxing career, and nobody had the nerve to ask him a basic question."
The day I wound up banging on Manny's piano happened to be my last in the Philippines; though it was also Manny's birthday, one of his "reps" had promised to get me "in the living room at two thirty," and by God it had happened. He hadn't stipulated whether Manny would be in the room, however, and by then I was too bewildered to ask. So I spent a few hours admiring the decor. The room was a carnival of the baroque, as if four designers had been dosed with LSD and then assigned one wall each, with no awareness of what the other three were doing. The porcelain merry-go-round, encrusted with zirconium and with the tags still attached, was by Vittorio Sabadin. The orchids were plastic.
Because he is Pacquiao.
The birthday party, in a convention hall, began with a 6 p.m. Mass. There were no prayers for the people—just for the Person.
…that he will be blessed with good health and money…to share his blessings…
The birthday supplied convincing evidence that the boxing and the politics and the mythos are secondary—only in the mix because they create the circumstances under which Manny Pacquiao can annually subject a captive audience of 3,000 to six hours of karaoke-style singing.
As ever, he began with "La Bamba." With its triumphant chorus came a bursting open of doors and an outflowing of bounty: tuna the size of linebackers; a herd of swine— thirty? forty?—roasted wide-eyed and whole. As his guests began to eat, Pacquiao slowed things down with "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love for You." His wife, Jinkee, sang a number. The audience then watched Pacquiao as he stood onstage watching his children line dance to Top 40 hits.
Because he is Pacquiao.
Manny sang "Endless Love" with a Britain's Got Talent contestant.
Manny's mother, Dionisia, exploded onto the stage in a red dress with white polka dots and performed a tango to a dance remix of ABBA's "Dancing Queen."
A beautiful and strikingly tall Filipina woman approached out of the blue to inform me that "you are not handsome, but you are cute." A Filipino man named Curtis informed me that he owned "the premier gentlemen's club in Manila" and that "I'll hook you up."
Dionisia retook the stage. There had been a wardrobe change. She delivered a fiery speech in the native Tagalog tongue. Three hours in, the inescapable thought: But why?
To feed us. To entertain us. To show us what he means to us and what we mean to him.
There were gymnasts and belly dancers. A Lady Gaga impersonator. A metal cart heaped with the ravaged shells of pig and tuna, hocks and picked spines and half-masticated ribbons of gristle and skin cascading over its sides. (Partygoers kept slipping on the glistening snail trail the cart left in its wake.) A slide show featuring images of Manny Pacquiao dressing and assessing himself in various mirrors soundtracked by Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." Throughout the evening, Michael Koncz, who is unanimously acclaimed as Team Pacquiao's most ubiquitous and inexplicable member, stood on the left side of the stage. Watching.
To judge us.
Six hours in: Dionisia redivivus! Another wardrobe change! Another tango!
To punish us.
At four in the morning, three hours before my flight out of General Santos City was to depart, Joe Ramos texted my cell. "Manny playing pool. Can get you in the room."
On the plane to New York, after Manny has eaten and Michael Koncz has tucked him in, I ask Pacquiao about walking into Cotto's punches. About his birthday party. About his various meanings. About everything. I can only pass on what he gives me.
Manny says: "Boxing is not about your feelings. It's about performance."
Manny says: "Because I been in the poorest life, I know what they live. I remember what it is to be hungry. People are shouting for help. Most of leaders in Philippine politics come from rich family. Most politician from government is hands to their pocket. They don't feel what the people are shouting."
Manny says: "God is love. Love your people. Keep them close. If you always keep them close, no matter what, because you must love, then you must forgive. Yes?"
Manny says: "Before fight? I am just laughing. I talk to God. I said, 'God, I trust you. If you want me to lose this fight, I will accept that. Whatever you want. But I am not scared.' "
Manny says: "I'm surprised that that [De La Hoya] fight I win easily, yeah?"
Manny says: "So your wife, you can tell her that me, I have a good nature?"
Manny says: "My faith to God. It not make a great story for you. I sorry, but that is truth."
Manny Pacquiao then closes his eyes and falls asleep.
And I watch him sleep. Or rather, I join his men as they regard their beloved boy-man in the act of sleep. It cannot be helped. In motion or at rest, he is beautiful to behold. I feel an inexplicable need to protect him.
I think about how the people closest to Pacquiao—and there are an astonishing number of them, literally, bodily, at all times—do not know who or what Manny is. How they don't even know when or where he is.
I think about something Freddie Roach has said—that Manny often loses on purpose when gambling with his friends in order to alleviate their shame over accepting his alms.
I think about the umbrage with which Michael Koncz asserts that he—not Jayke Joson or some other Team Pacquiao pretender—is Manny's chief of staff: "Manny made that announcement two months ago at a billiards tournament in General Santos."
I think about how Manny Pacquiao's life is a cyclone of madness and dysfunction and karaoke and tango dancing and fucked-to-death lions and grown men vying to fluff his rice and cut his meat and massage his thighs and sing harmony parts on Beatles songs.
How can he live this way?
Because he is the serene centering Eye. The storm, his life, envelops but does not touch him. The Tysonesque psychopathologies that drive other bors to the dark side are flung centrifugally from his body and soul, outsourced to his disciples, who carry this burden and lay down their lives for him.
I begin to think about how Manny Pacquiao cannot be pieced or parsed. I begin to enter a fugue state. I begin scrawling in my notebook.
The great I AM.
Because he is Pacquiao.
God is Love.
Cogito, ergo sum.
"What are you doing there?" Freddie Roach asks. He's looking over my shoulder at my scratchings. He seems amused.
"I don't know," I tell him. Roach stands there for a moment. Then he shrugs.
"We're not going to see another Manny Pacquiao again," he says. "Not in this lifetime."
Andrew Corsello was recently named Manny Pacquiao's chief of staff.


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Send an Email
The Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department now offers a place for you and your family to escape from the summer heat and cool off in one of the new and exciting spraygrounds. Each sprayground has been constructed with fun water features that you can run through, jump in or just sit down and enjoy. There is no charge, just come and enjoy.
The outdoor pools and spraygrounds will both open and close on the same schedule, Memorial Day through Labor Day. Sprayground Hours are 10am-8pm
Facilities with Spraygrounds:


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J.W. Anderson
Funnel neck Ruffled Blouse in Black
€680€204 (70%)
- Long sleeved crepe top
- Crafted from a acetate and polyester blend in a fine crepe weave
- Features a large funnel neck
- Ruffled and waved detail on front and back
- Long exaggerated sleeves
- Semi-circle detail at waist
- Straight-cut hem
- Relaxed fit
- Concealed clasp fastening at shouler
- Oversized body construction
- Minimal aesthetic
- Model wears size 6
London based J.W. Anderson is renowned for his androgynous, realistic and confident pieces for both men and women. Founding his young label in 2008, Anderson is already regarded as one of London's most intuitive brands. Focusing on quiet individualism and refined forms, his collections are tailored and intricate yet playful and free. With his womenswear line he brings intricate printing and experimental fabrics to the forefront of his collections, complacent with traditional prettiness, the label celebrates the discipline of the perverse.
J.W. Anderson's AW15 collection paid homage to the New Wave 80's depicting the energetic styles from post-communist Russian party girls. Reviving the looks of Soviet girls in Berlin in the late 80's and early 90's, the collection featured exaggerated and embellished pieces, oversized shoulders and embroidered motifs. Modernising classic 80's masculine silhouettes, the collection featured metallic fringed skirts and flowing polo necks that had been simultaneously jacquarded and dévoré-ed. Alongside buffed patent leather coats were geometric shapes seen in accessories, playfully folded two pieces and metallic lurex dresses. Although reminiscent of the 80's as a whole, the collection was about emancipating from constrictions, a remix of pieces that can be worn interchangeably with a modern wardrobe.
We offer Standard and Express Shipping
All purchased items can be returned free of charge – including reduced items.
We are happy to refund any purchases* within 14 business days from receipt. All returns must be sent via registered mail in their original condition.
*Excludes underwear, fragrance and cosmetic items which are non-returnable.
All orders are shipped worldwide via our affiliate DHL.
As soon as we have shipped your order you will receive an email stating the tracking number. You can check the status of your order one to two hours after receiving the email via the link provided.
You can only specify a different delivery address from your billing address, if it is your place of work. Just fill in your office address details at the checkout when prompted. All orders placed before 12PM gmt will be dispatched the same working day.*
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Standard - EUR 15 - 2/4 BD
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Express - EUR 34 - 2/3 BD
Express - EUR 55 - 2/3 BD


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CatLab Bitcoin Gateway API - How To
CatLab Interactive is a computer game and browser based game development community. The CatLab Bitcoin Gateway is a user interface designed to ease the bitcoin transfer process. The service uses an API key, returns JSON, and cost 1% of transferred amount, plus a transaction fee. Instead of a pop up or third party service, users are able to type in the address to send the Bitcoin to, and the rest is done on the backend.


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Vanessa Hudgens & Selena Gomez: Bikini 'Breakers'!
Vanessa Hudgens wears a blonde wig and a neon green bikini top while shooting more scenes for Spring Breakers on Tuesday (March 13) in St. Petersburg, Fla.
Co-stars Selena Gomez and Ashley Benson also showed off their bikini bods while riding different colored scooters.
"@postcarding from set, pretty picture of a sunset going out from last night," Selena wrote on her Twitter page.
"Got bad anxiety after shooting.. I need to relax," she wrote in another tweet the day before.
FYI: Selena is wearing We Love Colors boy shorts.
10+ pictures inside of bikini-clad Vanessa Hudgens, Selena Gomez, and Ashley Benson riding scooters on the Spring Breakers set…


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North Broad students honor veterans at annual event in Oneida (video)
ONEIDA -- Students at North Broad Elementary School got a chance to show their patriotism and support for U.S. veterans.
The school welcomed local vets Friday and presented some poetry and songs to honor their service, including "This Land is Your Land" sung by the entire school and "In Flanders Field," presented by students Theresa Diamond and Brandon Zeller.
After the presentation, the fourth grade classes sat down individually with a veteran and interviewed them. The pairs traded stories and recognition pins.
"I'm glad to see that the kids are interested in visiting with people that served in the military," said Air Force Master Sergeant Bob Rabbitt. "I think events like this are important. It makes me happy that kids take interest in what we do. There was a time in this country when being in the military wasn't so cool."
Rabbitt served during the Persian Gulf conflict and continues to serve.
Rabbitt's partner, fourth grader Dylan Cornish, said he enjoyed interviewing Rabbitt, and that he really liked talking to veterans because his dad Larry Cornish served in the Army.
Fourth grade teacher Shelly Crowley has been organizing this event at North Broad for 11 years with the help of the Elks Club and the rest of the faculty. Her Uncle John Cogut from Utica served during World War II.
"We want the kids to embrace patriotism," said Crowley. "Everything they have today: this school, their freedom, is because of the men and women who have served and continue to serve this country."


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Distance from Tiller, OR to Oakpark, VA
Driving distance between Tiller, OR and Oakpark, VA is 0 miles (or 0 kilometers). If you drove an average car (using about 3.6 gallons of gas per mile), the gas would cost you around $, since you would need about gallons of fuel.
Leaving from Tiller, OR you would reach Oakpark, VA in about 0 seconds if you keep an average speed of miles per hour, assuming you don't make any breaks or get stuck in traffic.


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SAN JOSE — The Earthquakes' Frank Yallop won Major League Soccer's coach of the year award Tuesday after directing San Jose to the Supporters' Shield title this season.
Yallop, who won the award one other time in his 10-year career, received 65 percent of the vote, well ahead of second-place Peter Vermes of Sporting Kansas City.
Yallop hopes to have all of the main players from the record-setting club back next season, including English striker Simon Dawkins.
Yallop said Tuesday the Quakes are negotiating with Tottenham Hotspur to sign Dawkins, who played the past two seasons in San Jose on loan deals with the English Premier League club. General manager John Doyle and president Dave Kaval recently went to London to try to strike a deal. The team cannot sign the Englishman until the January transfer window.
The talented forward who had eight goals in 2012 has said he doesn't want to be loaned out again.
"We're expecting Simon back next year," Yallop said.
The coach expressed gratitude Tuesday over getting recognized. But he credited his players and management for the allowing him to win it. The former English defender led the Quakes through one of the biggest turnarounds in MLS history after the team failed to make the playoffs in 2011.
San Jose (19-6-9) improved by 28 points with a club-record 66 points this year.
Yallop said the Quakes built a special chemistry among themselves and with the coaching staff.
"There are not many times in a players' life where you feel this was meant to be," Yallop said. "Part of what we built here is a joy to coach."
Yallop and Doyle built the Earthquakes from scratch when San Jose re-entered MLS as an expansion team in 2008. The club went through some major roster changes for the first five years but has made the playoffs in two of the past three seasons.
The Los Angeles Galaxy rallied to eliminate San Jose in the MLS Cup playoffs this year when the Quakes had four starters playing with injuries.


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|Canton, Mass.
|High School:
2011: appeared in nine games for the Cardinals ... member of NFHCA Division III National Academic Squad and Landmark Conference Academic Honor Roll.
2010: appeared in three games ... named
team Most Improved Player.
2009: saw time in two games for the Cardinals.
High School: Won Field Hockey Coaches Award in 2005 ... team named 2006 division 2 state champions and division 2 Eastern Mass. champions in 2007 ... member of 2006 and 2007 Hockomock League Championship team ... two year member of Lead the Way club team ... competed in two National Field Hockey Festivals ... competed in the Cape Cod Classic and Bay State Games ... participated in U.S. Futures program in 2007 and 2008 ... four years varsity spring track ... received track freshman of the year award ... four year state participant of the 4x100 relay ... received four varsity letters for gymnastics and was team captain ... honor roll student.
Personal: Daughter of Mark and Carol ... has two siblings: Allison, 18, and John, 11 ... served as a Cardinal Ambassador ... participated in CUA's Habitat for Humanity Trip ... hobbies include water activities such as waterskiing and tubing, skiing, and hanging out with friends and family ... a nursing major.


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Deep Emotions Pack 2 is a wonderful bundle of 4 songs from the Romantic/Sentimental Cinematic category. This pact is perfect for setting a deep, emotional mood in telling your story and taking your emotional project to the next level. Included in this pack are some of my personal favorite songs just right for that love scene, critical moment, deeply thoughtful and reminiscent project, wedding video montage, introspective mood, emotional documentaries, and personal stories and testimonies. These tearful songs tug at your heartstrings and make you feel emotions you never knew you had. Save more than 50% off the original track prices with this pack!
Purchase includes WAV and MP3 files of ALL of the following AudioJungle-approved, emotional songs:
1. Simple Beauty, 4:59 (0:00-4:59 in preview)
2. Never Forget, 2:41 (4:59-7:40 in preview)
3. Jazz Minimalist, 3:28 (7:40-11:08 in preview)
4. Born to Shine, 4:05 (11:08-15:13 in preview)
5. Mysteria, 4:30 (15:13-19:44 in preview)
All music by Phil Larson
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Try the quick-play previews of the songs below: