Hi all, the year 2010 just wrapped up last weekend. This is what happened that year, in my perspective. I will not include work in this blog, just the fun stuff.
January 2010 - Its the start of a new decade. The Olympic Torch Relay continues to head west to Vancouver, Canada for the upcoming Winter Olympics next month. Haiti suffered its worst earthquake to date, killing thousands. Since the Australian Open (tennis) is held this month, the top ATP/WTA tennis players helped out by giving an exhibition match, in which the money is used to those affected in that earthquake. Even Canada helped out too, since its Governor General used to grow up in Haiti herself. Back to the tennis match and two Chinese female tennis players managed to make the semis of the tournament for the first time, but Serena Williams and Roger Federer prevailed as champions. The shows that I watched this month were Ugly Betty, which resumed from its holiday break, the fifth season of America's Best Dance Crew, Tanging Yaman (a political drama in which the main character turns out to be the first daughter of the Philippines), and Kung Tayo'y Magkakalayo (another drama in which the main character tried to move on and have a relationship after her husband's death in a plane crash, with a man who works for the NBI who also lost his wife while working abroad).
February 2010 - The torch relay ends and the Winter Olympics from Vancouver begins. The Opening Ceremony (Feb 12) was the most watched program in Canadian soil and I was among those who stayed up till midnight (or 9pm in the Pacific Time Zone). Just hours before the Opening Ceremony was to begin, a luger from Georgia died while in training. Canada's drought in winning a gold medal on home soil (Montreal in 1976 and Calgary in 1988, resulted in no golds) ended on day 3 of the games when Alexandre Bilodeau became the first Canadian to win gold on home soil. In figure skating, Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao ended the Soviet Union/Russian dominance in winning gold during the pairs competition. Sure, Jamie Sale and David Pelltier had that chance back in 2002 if that controversy didn't happen at all, resulting in the change of the scoring system. Yu-Na Kim became the first South Korean to win gold in the ladies competition. Canadian figure skater Joannie Rochette managed to get the bronze medal just days after her mother died of a heart attack. Overall, the countries from the Four Continents dominated the event over the Europeans. In ice hockey, both the Canadian women and men's hockey team walked away with the gold. The men's hockey team almost struggled in the beginning with a loss to the US one week before the gold medal game. They rebounded back to defeat them on the final day of the Olympics (Feb 28). Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal in overtime to clinch the gold medal. This too was the most watched in both Canada and the US. Around the same time the Olympics ended, an earthquake in Chile occurred. As for shows that I watched, along with the shows that premiered in January, the sixteenth season of The Amazing Race premieres.
March 2010 - Manny Pacquiao won his next fight, this time at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas and my vacation begins (refer to my last blog).
April 2010 - My vacation continues including a trip to Hong Kong, China (refer to my last blog). A volcanic eruption in Iceland stranded flights that were headed to or from Europe. If I was in Europe at this time, I would be stuck for 2-3 weeks. Thankfully, my flight was a transpacific route than a transatlantic route. Ugly Betty ended for good this month due to low viewership. Luckily, I was able to watch the final episode via On Demand and I didn't get a chance to watch much of the tenth season of DWTS and finish up ABDC season 5. There was also the oil spill that happened near the Gulf of Mexico and there was so much talk about it that BP failed to close the well properly, resulting in the water and the animals who live in it get covered with oil. It lasted throughout the spring and summer till it was finally sealed in September. That YouTube video that they posted (it's a parody) was a total waste and it didn't help at all. All they had was actors/actresses portraying BP employees overreacting to a coffee spill than an oil spill. I didn't understand or get the video at all.
May 2010 - The sixteenth season of TAR ended and I was disappointed in the winning team. The cowboys Jet and Cord should have won. Oh my gravy! Tanging Yaman ended this month as well and ends the love team of Melissa Ricks and Matt Evans as they have different projects. May 10 was election day in the Philippines. Noynoy Aquino was definitely headed to the position for President while the position for Vice-President was currently a neck and neck race between Mar Roxas (Aquino's running mate) and Jejomar Binay (Estrada's running mate). The French Open (tennis) takes place and Rafael Nadal and Francesca Schiavone were declared champions.
June 2010 - The fifth season of America's Got Talent premieres. The 2010 Scripps National Spelling Bee aired this month with Anamika Veeramani of Ohio taking the trophy. The lone Canadian Laura Newcombe placed better in her second appearance, finishing in a tie for 5th place. The FIFA World Cup in South Africa begins as well as Wimbledon (tennis). Noynoy Aquino, son of democracy icons Cory and Ninoy Aquino is sworn in as 15th President of the Philippines while Jejomar Binay is sworn in as the Vice-President. The now called former President Gloria Arroyo didn't stick around for the ceremony as she had to go to Pampanga to be sworn in as a House of Representative there. Another show that I watched this month was Magkaribal (a fashion drama about two ladies who are rivals in the fashion world that turn out to be long lost sisters). This year's MMVA's (MuchMusic Video Awards) was the worst year ever. I didn't bother to watch the whole thing due to the presence of both Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. Totally Disgusting!!! The only plus side of the awards show was having Katy Perry and Adam Lambert perform there. The disastrous G20 in Toronto took place followed by a mini earthquake the week after. To be honest, this was the first time I experienced something like that.
July 2010 - Wimbledon (tennis) continues and Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams were the champions. Prior to the finals, the Queen visited to meet some of the top tennis players before watching a second round match featuring Scot Andy Murray. In addition, two tennis players (John Isner of the US and Nicolas Mahut of France) took 3 days (due to darkness) to finish up their first round match on court 18 with Isner advancing. To date, this was the longest tennis match in the history of tennis with no tiebreak in the 5th set. The FIFA World Cup wraps up with Spain as the champions over the Netherlands. Paul, an octupus from Germany had his predictions right even though the Germans were disappointed that he chose the Dutch over the Germans in the semis. Sadly, just few months later, Paul passed away in the fall. Wowowee was cancelled after airing for 5 years since the main host Willie Revillame was on indefinite leave during the elections earlier. My guess is that probably he's now a bad influence which was why the network decided not to let him resume the show. Eventually, it was replaced by Pilipinas Win na Win the following day with new hosts and former co-hosts of Wowowee. Another show that ended this month was Kung Tayo'y Magkakalayo. There goes my favorite love team Kim Chiu and Gerald Anderson as this could potentially be their last drama together. Chelsea Clinton, the only daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and current US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton got married on the last day of this month. In the music scene, the songs that were being played throughout the summer over and over included "California Girls" by Katy Perry, "DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love" by Usher featuring Pitbull, "Not Afraid" by Eminem and "Love the Way you Lie" by Eminem featuring Rihanna, and "Just the Way you Are" and "Beautiful Girls" by Bruno Mars. Even Ke$ha's songs from "Tik Tok" to "Take it Off" were being played too as well as Taio Cruz.
August 2010 - Its the long weekend and besides friends coming over for karaoke and watching movies, I went to Niagara Falls to shop and go gambling at Fallsview Casino for the first time. The third season of SYTYCD Canada premiered and this season featured 22 dancers instead of the usual 20. One of my favourite pop singers, Hilary Duff, got married to a Canadian hockey player this month. The Miss Universe Pageant takes place and Miss Mexico takes the title. Miss Philippines makes an appearance in the finals (top 15) in 11 years (1999 was last appearance) and screwed up on the final question: "What is the biggest mistake in your life and how did you corrected it?" and ended up as 4th runner-up. That same day (earlier), a disgruntled policeman, who demanded his job back, took a bus hostage full of tourists from Hong Kong in Manila. The police did a terrible job of the situation and in the end, the suspect and 8 tourists were killed. Now I know why its too risky to ride a bus while in the Philippines. I'm sure the tourism there will go down slightly for the rest of the year. The US Open (tennis) in New York is underway and Serena Williams will not be there as she suffered a foot injury while watching the FIFA World Cup at a bar in Germany.
September 2010 - The US Open (tennis) continues and Kim Clijisters successfully defended the women's title while Rafael Nadal became the 7th man to complete a career grand slam by getting the men's title. Almost everyone was assuming that Nadal would face Roger Federer in the finals. Instead, it was Novak Djokovic, who defeated Federer in the semis. This has been the third straight year that the US Open finals was pushed to Monday due to rain. I think they should build an indoor roof like at the Rod Laver Arena and Wimbledon's Centre Court. I was pissed off that I didn't have the channel to see Nadal's winning moment and I had to watch it on Youtube a few days later. The MTV VMA's took place and there was no Kanye West/Taylor Swift incident this year, which is a relief. Lady Gaga walked away with the most awards for her song "Bad Romance." She wore two outfits, one of which was made entirely out of meat. AGT ended and Michael Grimm wins. Screw him! Fighting Gravity should have won! I guess America voted for singers over the other acts, as usual. The opera singer from Youtube was the runner-up. Its kind of a karma that the opera singers end up being the runner-up, similar to Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent. I think the show should ban singers (except children and seniors). They should go on American Idol or The X Factor instead. Oprah Winfrey premiers her final season this month and her audience were given a trip to Australia for a taping of her upcoming show there sometime in December. The 11th season of DWTS as well as the 17th season of TAR began this month. This was also the month I began to watch Glee for the first time. When I first heard it back in April, I thought it was a movie like High School Musical, but it wasn't like HSM. The reason why I began to watch it is because of Charice's appearance on the show as Sunshine Corazon.
October 2010 - The 3rd season of SYTYCD Canada ended with Denys from Toronto as the winner. I wasn't really impressed this season after the amount of time slot changes. The first 2 seasons were better. Thirty-tree miners in Chile were finally rescued after being trapped underground for 69 days. Singer Katy Perry got married to comedian Russell Brand in India. The city of Toronto has elected a new mayor and I didn't bother to to cast my vote. Why I didn't bother to vote? The choices of the candidates. Are they even trustworthy to handle the position of being mayor and are they going to fulfill their promises? I regret voting in the last election 3 years ago. The former mayor did somewhat of a good job until the garbage strike occurred, developing and building of Transit City, a five cent charge on plastic bags, the handling of the G20, and the crime that still continues to occur in all parts of the city. The same goes for MPs and MPPs. Screw their HST that occurred this past July. A lot of families will soon struggle financially and have to turn to food banks, afforadable housing, and continue to search for jobs. As for Thanksgiving and Halloween, I basically did nothing so there's not much to say.
November 2010 - Prince William is finally engaged to his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton and the engagement ring Kate is wearing was the same ring worn by Princess Diana when she was engaged to Prince Charles. Their wedding date is set for April 29, 2011 at Westminister Abbey, the same church where Princess Diana's funeral was held back in September 1997. DWTS continues and its beginning to get rigged in terms of the votes. It seems that the fans are keeping Bristol Palin to make the finals despite having the lowest score for 6 weeks. I think they went way too far when R and B singer Brandy was shockingly eliminated in the semis, despite having a high score. I was hoping anyone but Bristol would win the mirrorball trophy this season and I was pleased with the result in the end. Jennifer Grey won the title while Disney actor Kyle Massey (That's so Raven/Cory in the House) was the runner-up. Let's just say, they can have another season of DWTS, but not have celebs that were heard in the news lately. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part One is finally released in theatres and I have yet to watch it despite reading the entire book. The second half will be in theatres next summer. Manny Pacquiao wins another fight in Texas. North Korea attacks an island in South Korea killing two and injuring sixteen. This incident caused an escalation of tension between the two Koreas. The site Wikileaks revealed secret US documents/cables. I think they should take the site down. Its a shame that this secret stuff could be seen by random people including terrorists. Now the founder of the site is in the news lately for assault.
December 2010 - Finally, the last month of the year. My birthday and Christmas is held this month. TAR has just wrapped up and finally after 17 seasons, an all-female team has won the million dollar prize. In fact, this was the best season for all-female teams because they finished first and second respectively. The Nobel Peace Prize this year was given to Liu Xiaobo from China. Currently, he's in prison and the Chinese were outraged by this. In my opinion, I think they should be proud that one of their own got the prize, but their views and opinions of him make them unsatisified. I'm pleased that there's no snow (currently it hasn't been snowing a lot here), but its very cold. I did not go out of the country this Xmas; I just spent the holidays with my relatives and play with my new Ipad. Unfortunately for my relatives in the states, heavy snow fell in their area. First, the snow happened in parts of Europe, and now the Eastern US and Atlantic Canada have it. For Boxing Day, I just went to the mall to shop for good deals. My package from my aunties in the states arrived late after Xmas. At least I got new clothes to wear. The variety show Pilipinas Win na Win was cancelled after airing for 5 months due to low ratings. I guess the hosts are too old style. At least shows like Showtime have both young and old co-hosts and judges even though it's a dancing competition like ABDC. As 2010 comes to a close, a New Year begins. Anything can happen in the year 2011. The Year of the Rabbit will begin in February. Why the rabbit? I'm born in the year of the rabbit lol.
Best memorable moment(s) - The Vancouver Olympics, visiting Hong Kong, getting an Ipad, listening to Lady Gaga's songs on my Ipod/cell mp3, an all-female team winning The Amazing Race, K-pop/mash-ups, and Prince William's engagement to Kate Middleton
Worst moment(s) - All of Justin Bieber (his songs {including that annoying hit "Baby"}, his looks, and his crazy serious fangirls), Miley Cyrus (headed into Britney Spears territory soon), Lindsay Lohan, the G20, BP and the oil spill, Bristol Palin participating in DWTS, the hostage crisis in Manila, and not being able to watch a movie in the theatre all year.
I guess basically that's that for 2010. Hopefully 2011 would be a good year or is it?
