Hi again ^^;;. I haven't wrote a blog lately since last year. So busy. This summer is been so-so. Let's start with June. I was mostly at work. On the other hand, I looking forward to watching some Wimbledon tennis on TV, rooting for Roger Federer to make history, surpassing Pete Sampras' grand slam record. The new Centre Court had a new retractable roof incase if the rains were to come. It was only used once, during the 2nd week of the tournament. June 21, the MMVAs takes place. Ewwww....the Jonas Brothers co-hosting the show. Sorry, Backstreet Boys, N*Sync, and New Kids on the Block are way better than these teen guys. Wish they would have invited Quest Crew ~I heart Hok!!!~ or Katy Perry. Lady Gaga's performance of "LoveGame" and "Poker Face" was sick. Her outfit during the beginning of the performance, was way too revealing (the bottom part of the outfit). At the end, she lights up her boobs with pyro techs (she put it on her outfit). On June 25th, the entertainment world lost a musical artist who's known worldwide - Michael Jackson. He was only 50, just 2 months short from turning 51. A lot of musical artists we seen today, grew up watching him, by his dancing, his voice, and so on. He was an inspiration to all. I grew up listening to some of his songs on radio and TV: "Billie Jean," "Rock with You," "Human Nature," "Will you be there," "Thriller," "Beat it," "Scream," "You Rock my World," "You are not alone," "Bad," and "Black or White." Watching some of his music videos make me laugh, not all of them. Its kind of sick, the way he does it. I remembered in the 4th grade, the class was listening to the song "Heal the World." That was also the song I played at home when I found out my grandma passed away 3 years ago. During his memorial service, his only daughter Paris spoke for the first time saying she had the best father and that she missed him so much. A lot of fans were there for this service along with Michael's family and close friends.
Move on to July, back to Wimbledon, and Serena Williams defeats her older sister Venus in straight sets on the 4th of July, adding a 3rd Wimbledon title to her resume. The Williams Sisters were not finished yet as they won the women's doubles title later on the same day, right after David Nestor of Canada and his doubles partner from Serbia defeated the Bryan Brothers for the men's doubles title. At least Venus feels happy, despite her loss in the women's singles vs her sister. July 5, the men's finals takes place - another Wimbledon rematch from 2004 and 2005 - Roger Federer vs Andy Roddick. Would have been more exciting if Nadal defended his Wimbledon title, but he withdrew due to injury or even Andy Murray (the hometown fav). Had he beaten Roddick in the semi's, the Queen would have attended that final. Midway through the beginning of the 1st set, Pete Sampras' takes his seat in the royal box, witnessing history for Federer or Roddick to win his 2nd grand slam. I was mostly rooting for Federer, since he completed a career grand slam by winning the French Open a month earlier. This match went all the way to 5 sets. It kept going till the 30th game of this set and then.....Federer breaks Roddick and surpasses Petes' record of 14 grand slams. Congratulations to him. He is soon to become a father in the next few weeks. July 9 was the finale of Harper's Island. This series started in early April. Christopher Gorham, who's known for playing Henry Grubstick on Ugly Betty starrs in it as a different Henry, the groom-to-be. Half of the cast in this show is Canadian and so is the filming/setting of the Island itself. The first episode, I went ~oh...Henry so handsome looking without his glasses *goes starry eyed*~. The final episode, I was surprised and shocked that he was one of the killers, the other being John Wakefield ~Hate his character, damn it! Why Henry? Why?~. He turned into kind of a psycho. All he wanted was Abby, his best friend, then half-sister. So he set the wedding up, for Abby to return to the island and kill several of the wedding guests along the way. He wanted to frame Jimmy (Abby's true love) for the murders. It was too intense till the very end, when Abby accidentally stabs Henry to death. The ending felt sad. In all, 4 survived the massacre - Madison (the flower girl), Shea (the maid-of-honor and mother of Madison), Abby (the groom's best friend), and Jimmy (the local and Abby's true love). I don't know why they showed a pre-wedding video at the end. All of them were saying their congrats to the soon-to-be couple, only to be killed later on. A couple of weeks later, I visited relatives cuz it my mom's and uncle's birthday. I should not have eaten that cookies and cream cake, almost had a case of laryngitis the week after, to go along with my allergies. Oh yeah, almost forgot, the week before that, I had a BBQ/karaoke with some of my mom's co-workers from work.
August, its a long weekend =D on the first week. Terrible news on the first day of August....at 3:18am, Cory Aquino, first female President of the Philippines and Asia passes away of complications from a 16-month battle with colon cancer. All of the Filipinos there, including the Aquino family, are grieving her loss. The local news had the headline "Thank You Cory." Several ABS-CBN (or TFC - outside the Philippines) shows, including Wowowee gave a moment of silence for the former president. The viewing for her body was in 2 places. One was in a school from Sunday to Monday, and the other was at the Manila Cathedral from Monday to Wednesday. Coincidence, this was the same church where my uncle on my dad's side got married back in 1995. August 5th, the former president is finally laid to rest next to her husband. It all started with a funeral mass at 9 in the morning. That lasted probably 2-3 hours. Next up, was to take her body on a truck, surrounded with 4 honor guards (air force, police, navy, and army) for the entire day until night. Originally, this would be a short trip to the cemetery, but the Filipinos/supporters were blocking the road, paying respect to her. Its almost similar to that of her husband Ninoy. I thought those 4 guards were statues at first. Oops...they were real, despite the people throwing confetti, coins, or flowers at them (they're standing the whole day and they cannot move). By 8 in the evening, it finally reaches its final destination. The 5 children of the late president say their final goodbyes. Before the tomb (with the coffin inside) was to be sealed, family members of the Aquinos put yellow flowers (yellow was her fav colour) inside her tomb. Go back to August 2nd, and I visited relatives in Mississauga, another BBQ and I get to play Wii again. Looks like i'm getting better when playing the tennis on the Wii Sports. The funny part of it was when all the doubles players were me (my mii). I managed to get a home run in the baseball portion of it. Not only I played Wii Sports, but also Wii Play. The 2nd week of August was the premieres of ABDC4 and SYTYCD Canada 2. The latest season of ABDC4 resemble that of the 2nd season. The crews were diverse. Hopes there's a change that a female crew or a co-ed crew wins it. SYTYCD Canada 2, again better then the US version (season 5), though the host Leah Miller looks uglier than the 1st season last year. Its like she woke up from bed and looks so dreadful during the audition episodes. At least the finals week wasn't as cruel as the latest season from the US. August 20, after the last few days of getting summer temperatures, we end up in a massive thunder/tornado storm. I totally freaked @_@! Luckily, I didn't see a tornado or had a blackout in our area. The houses north of us (Vaughan and Woodbridge) were affected as the roofs of some the homes were torn off, exposing the bedrooms. Feel bad for the owners. As a result of the storm, the temperatures went down. The morning feels like in spring while the afternoon is not extremely hot. It also affected the Rogers Cup (tennis) at York University. The women from the WTA tour are playing in this one week tournament, as part of the US Open Series. I was happy Maria Sharapova made the final, but disappointed that she didn't win the title because of fatigue from her semi-final match with another Russian the night before.
August 31, the last day of August and the 1st week of September, the last grand slam in tennis begins. Summer vacation for the kids is almost over. The top half in the women's singles were filled with upsets from the new tennis youngsters who just turned pro recently. Sharapova was among those who were cut earlier along with Dementieva, Ivanovic, Jankovic, and Safina. Kim Clijsters beaten both the Williams sisters en route to her first grand slam final in 2 or 3 years since her retirement. Her semi final match with Serena Williams was controversial. Serena apparently did a foot fault, as noted by the lineswoman. She said something mean to her, kind of threatening. That eventually cost her the match, giving Clijsters a trip to the final. On the men's side, no upsets in the first few days until Andy Roddick was eliminated on the Labour Day weekend, thus opening the door for Djokovic to potentially face Federer in the semis. The tournament was on schedule until 9/11, which rained for the entire day. It was a gloomy day in The Big Apple, on that terrible day that happened 8 years ago. That pushed the matches one day later, making the women's and men's final to be held on Sunday and Monday respectively like last year's. The men's semi (on Sunday) between Federer and Djokovic was intense. Near the end of the 3rd set, Federer did this sick move by hitting the ball in between his legs and goes over the net, that eventually gave him match point. Djokovic's reaction - wt*?! Later in the evening, it was the women's final. Kim Clijisters defeated Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in straight sets. What a surprise for the Belgian who came back from retirement. She posed with the trophy along with her daughter. Too bad I wasn't able to see it since I didn't have TSN2. The next evening was the men's final between Federer and Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. Of course, Federer was the one to take the title, since he had beatin Del Potro 5 or 6 times straight. This final went to 5 sets and Federer let his 6th US Open title slip away from him. It was similar to his loss at Wimbledon last year for 6 straight as well. Del Potro defeated Federer, thus giving him his first major grand slam title. Next up, the MTV Music Video Awards. This was aired on Sunday, around the same time as the US Open Women's final, also in New York. The beginning was supposed to be the headline of the show. It was a Michael Jackson tribute. Madonna started it off by telling Michael's life and how she became friends with him. It follows by several dancers performing to his hits "Thriller," "Bad," and "Smooth Criminal" till finally Janet Jackson appears to perform "Scream." For the dance sequence part, Janet is digitally cut off from the video, so that her present self is dancing in sync with Michael (who is in the video screen). The audience gave a standing ovation, including the celebs/guests. The awards show was going as planned, until Kanye West spoiled it by going up on stage and interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech after winning 'Best Female Video.' He said that Beyonce, who was nominated for the same award, should have won. As a result, he was kicked out of the venue, walking empty handed without winning a Moonman. The show continued, though fans were booing whenever his name has been mentioned. Near the end of the awards, after Beyonce won 'Video of the Year' for her hit "Single Ladies," she called Taylor Swift back on stage to have her moment once again, by resuming her acceptance speech, which was interrupted earlier.
And that's that. As I was saying, my summer was so-so. I didn't travel anywhere this summer. The best part was watching tennis and playing the Wii, though I have yet to buy one. The sad part was losing 2 icons (one in music and another in politics). That's all for now.
