1. The Miami Heat, the 2006 champions, ended up garnering the lowest spot even when the Western and Eastern Conference combined. They are plagued with injuries.
2. Shaquille O'Neal could not take the Miami Heat, anymore, that he transferred/was traded to Phoenix Suns. Probably he dislikes being not able to play at the playoffs or that he finds Dwayne Wade too soft--he's a injury-prone player to the highest level. The trade consisted of big-time player Shawn Marion who has been one of Phoenix Suns' carrier. I wonder if D'Antoni got carried-away with O'Neal.
   
3. The Houston Rockets won 22 consecutive games! They have the most number of consecutive wins behind The Los Angeles Lakers of the '80s (or '70s?) with 33. Also, they were able to tied[-up] with the New Jersey Nets (of 2004) with the most number of consecutive wins with double-digit lead against their opposing team--that is, 10.
4. The overrated LeBron James is this season's scoring champ! He averaged 30.0 points per game while Kobe, the second placer and last season's scoring champion, got 28.3 points per game.
5. Steve Nash was now overthrown in the assists industry. Chris Paul, my soon-to-be-favorite and will likely be this season's MVP, beat him by a margin of 0.4 assists! He averaged 11.6 assists per game.
6. Oh my, the Lakers are back! They reigned supreme in the crowded and powerful Western Conference by grabbing 57-25 win-loss record.
7. The Boston Celtics had finally regained its position at the top of the Eastern Conference for decades by having to win this season's highest win-loss record: 66-16. They are six-game short of Chicago Bulls record during the late 1990's of 72-10.
8. The eight-placer at the Western Conference, the last seed to contend for the playoffs, has got 50 wins! That was attained by Denver Nuggets. By comparison to their Eastern counterpart, the Atlanta Hawks, that only got 37-45. This record was (I am not so sure here) the highest since the Phoenix Suns of the '80s attained such. (I am really not sure here; I do not have time for research for I am only renting a computer.)

The thick playoffs push are happening at the Western Conference. With nine teams struggling to get their target spot at the top eight, this season's probably the craziest for the Western Conference in years. Let's look at this great conference at greater depth:

The New Orleans Hornets (55-24), the conference's sole owner of number one spot, trails behind Los Angeles Lakers for just a half-game (55-25) and just one game to its co-division teams San Antonio Spurs (54-25) and Houston Rockets (54-25). Imagine the fifth placer, Houston Rockets, are just one game behind New Orleans Hornets--that's really incredible. Alright, let's look at the standing to get a better picture:

If there's Western, why there's no Eastern? I think the answer's been suggested by this blog's title.

Look at the second image! My oh my! They're really pushing for the position for them to get their home-court advantage! The top nine team's are simply incredible... they're neck-to-neck!

All this teams have three games remaining. With that, Phoenix Suns, current owner of the sixth spot, can still make it to the first place provided that they will win all their three remaining games while the New Orleans Hornets losing their three remaining games (of course, this observation excludes the teams between them). That's how competitive these teams are! And look at the seventh to ninth placers, they're all vying for the seventh spot and eighth spot (being which the eighth spot will be included in the playoffs while the ninth will be eliminated). That's why the bout between Golden State Warriors and the Denver Nuggets yesterday's very much important!* If in case the Denver Nuggets will close their standing at the end of the season having 50+ wins, that could be the first time in the history of NBA an eighth placer got 50+ wins--that is about .61+ percentage!

Alright, a reader might wonder why the Utah Jazz is the current fourth place when their win-loss statistics is lesser than that of the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns. The answer is that Utah Jazz is the first placer of its division, the Northwest Division (and now they're clinched--that means they can never be outpaced by the team next to it, the Denver Nuggets). And to give credit to such, the NBA made it a rule to give division clinchers a better standing or, let's say, bonus. If the case that Dallas Mavericks has got a better standing than the Utah Jazz, the Utah Jazz still got the better standing. Here, we can see that Dallas Mavericks is just third at the Southwest Division--the most competitive division of the NBA; where the famed Texas-Triangle teams** plays.

Now, let's look at the ever-strong Southwest Division. The division still has got no clinched team since the Houston Rockets, New Orleans Hornets and San Antonio Spurs are still vying for it. If ever the Houston Rockets will win two of their last three games while the San Antonio Spurs will only win one and the New Orleans will lose all, then the Houston Rockets will hold the position for the top team in the Southwest Division and, with this, will be given credit and they're only chance of getting in to the fifth or fourth or third place is zero. Why zero? Because their standing will be better compared to Los Angeles Lakers and Utah Jazz.

Well, enough of all this stuff. Let's do some realizations about how great this conference is.

The conference is home to:

1. The greatest active player and current second leading scorer in the league, Kobe Bryant,
2. my favorite team, the Houston Rockets,
3. my favorite player, Tracy McGrady,
4. the top four assist-men: Chris Paul, Steve Nash, Deron Williams, and Jason Kidd,
5. teams with great win-loss standing (Denver Nuggets, the Western Conference's current holder of the eight spot, could be the holder of the fourth spot at the measly Eastern Conference),
6. the-nation-with-the-largest-population's Yao Ming,
7. top seven scoring leaders except the overrated LeBron James,
8. in general, NBA's best players (I'm quite bias here),
9. among others.

Well, that's just it. I cannot think of anything to brag about this conference anymore. If only I have the patience to draw such a system of making lists, I could have had fifty.

----------------------------------------------
* The Denver Nuggets won that game 114-105.
** Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are located at Texas, USA.

Just an addition, I am thinking of including in my every blog entries the music/song that I am listening to while writing the blog. Alright, I'll start the soon-to-be-tradition on this post.

This blog is written while listening to Susumu Hirasawa's Yume no Shima Shinen Kouen, Ayako Ikeda's Sora no Kakera, Kuniaki Haishima's Make It Home, and Susumu Hirasawa's The Girl In Byakkoya.

For the record, I have been a member of Friendster--a social network service--since first year high school; that is, more or less seven years. My first Friendster account was made by my elder sister using her e-mail account. At first, I find it hard to digest its purpose--on how one can weigh the site's name with our social life, on how will it be possible for people to be "friends" on the web, on how will it make me happy, among others. Of course, those questions are just as usual to our [third world] country--developed countries have had those sort of online social services since the early 1900s. It has, indeed, taken the Philippines by storm. Almost all people had had their Friendster account. Some even used it as their official chat- and e-mail-machine minus the attachments. In extreme cases, some people used it as their output on how they want or dreamed themselves to become. Because most of my immediate friends have also their Friendster account, I need to indulge myself to this one. My Friendster URL [here] has become one of my most-visited and most-updated site. I have had this hidden urge of always updating my account, of filing up all the information and garnering testimonials. Of course, my indulgence can never be compared or be synonymous with addictiveness. I am, with air of confidence and self-said, just an average user.

Just as my world wide web world expanding--and eventually overtaking others--so as my search for a better social network service. I have gathered information from some of the top ranking websites who loves hierarchy. I consulted the then unpopular Wikipedia for complete (but untrustworthy) ranking of social network service companies based on numbers of registered members. Of course, it had became my standard of evaluation to weigh each of them since one cannot be popular if it is not good. With this, it came in to my knowledge the existence of MySpace (MySpace was unknown to the Philippines then--until now because of its sheer unpopularity). MySpace is still the largest social network service website in the Internet with which many of its members are from North America and Europe (the Caucasians, the first-world nations). I tried to register there. One thing that took a shot in my critical head is... it's messy. That's the word that I always accompany with MySpace. Tons of services can be found from MySpace--from their very-own video, music, blogs, among others, and those are the things I cannot comprehend very much. Maybe I could have appreciated those if my connection speed was tripled. Another thing that I do not like about MySpace is that they ask many things or that they require to fill-in too many information that some could be seen irrelevant and redundant. That is why my MySpace account never really been updated since I registered. Above all, there are tons of spammers and cyber-squatters (I am not pertaining to the real definition of cyber-squatter). So, I must drop MySpace.

I once tried hi5 and Orkut but, with the same condition as the MySpace, I decline to ride on them. These sites must be blonde-friendly. On that time, I am thinking of sticking to Friendster since it's hype and that I love informing other people of current events through their Bulletin Board. That is relatively easy compared to individual sending of e-mails and that it reach more people. I came on a hiatus. Partly because I indulged myself to online forums and communities that largely deals with my sphere of interests. After some times, with a glimmer on my eyes, an article barked on my head: it's Facebook on Time Magazine.

It's Facebook's era. For a short period of time, Facebook take the Americas and Europe by storm. MySpace, today, is in critical danger of being overtaken. As for me, I LIKE IT. The interface is really good--it's simple. The hyperlinks are user-friendly. Their service, all-in-all, is very good, if not excellent. This is the first website that I had encountered that has great emphasis on connection between schoolmates or simply workmates. This was also the first time for me to feel the urge to convince other Friendster users to switch to Facebook. Of course, that could be quite futile (it turned out to be futile, anyway) since they've absorbed Friendster pretty much. Anyway, I will not delve into this issue with much importance. Alright, I get to fill-in my information here although some are, up to now, pending. I searched for my fellow Filipinos who are already Facebook users and glad to know they're quite many. I am kind of elated, also, to know that Facebook has become one of the tools by psychologists, teachers, even investigators, etc. to know more of a certain people (please do refer to some controversies that had circled Facebook at their article in the newly-facelifted Wikipedia). Online groups here scored better in terms of substance and organizing method. Of course, I cannot exclude many games and chechebureches that jumped to the Facebook bandwagon. Facebook has become, for a moment, my primary social network service carrier [of which I am a member]. Why it's for a moment? Because I became bored. The interface has nothing to do with that nor their service in general. One reason is that many of my Friendster friends did not hopped-on in to it. I am still updating my Facebook account but not that as active and fun as that of its Friendster counterpart.

So I still sticked to Friendster. Not until it came to my knowledge the existence of Uber. I will not disclose how Uber knocked on my doorstep for my pride is at stake. One thing that really tickled me about this site is it's ASTIG and COOL. It's interface has got to be one of my favorite. The ease of joining has been, as I see it, their forte. Initially, one may have to note that the site's just simple or that it specifically caters to music- or video-lovers. Alas, that has not been the case. It actually emerged different from Facebook, Orkut, hi5, MySpace, and Friendster. Here, managing your OWN website is within-reach but quite tedious and inflexible (I am open to improvements since the website's new). What important is you can get to have your own website. It's new so there are only five or six available themes. Another thing is that its weblog service can rival Windows Live Spaces minus the Windows Live Writer and the blog-writing service of Microsoft Office Word 2007. Managing and editing of blog entries, pages, music, and videos are incredibly instilled here. It may, at times, serve as a [new] Photobucket account. Overall, this social network service website got a grade of 1.25.

Up to this moment, I am still contemplating on the issue of my major switch: from Friendster to Uber. If a reader may heed some help, I will wholeheartedly entertain it.

 Wait, did I just included Windows Live Spaces? I think I have sort out some of the reasons why I LOVE Windows Live Spaces from my previous blog (I can't remember it's archive).

Ahh... it's been three or four weeks since I posted my last blog here. I have been so busy these past weeks. And last week's my life's "hellest week".

Hey, how many weeks have I written so far? Five. That five corresponds to five days of no sleeping, minimal eating, no defecation, minimal bath-taking, and tremendous STUDYING. Yes, I have had confined myself to handouts, voluminous books, thick but incomplete notes, and problem sets. Of course, I just could not leave the three ballpoint pens I used during that course and my one-and-a-half yellow paper. Did I just included my brain?

How was it that I have done all these? Well, I must admit, I'm no good a student. Meaning, I seldom study during a semester--and this semester's my worst. My worst being which I spent more than half of this semester sleeping in my bed--that is, according to my roommate who had just graduated. I am guilty for that. Yes, I am, indeed, sleeping my whole time there. There were days were I would not go to all my classes just to sleep or that simply I could not lift my timid body even if my bed's enlaced in three-month-without-washing bed sheet. In some circumstances, I would simply not go to my class and just walk and observe the people and the place (man, my head's like that of a taong grasa). Because of that, I had averaged 6 to 7 absences in all my subjects with excessive numbers in two. These has what characterized my sixth semester here. Oh, I haven't answered the question. Well, I've done all those intense studying because I am chasing for the grade requirement of each of my subjects. Several of them, as what has been instituted in our university, must have at least 60% standing to pass. As for me, it's way below that number and, in correspondence, I need to have way high grades just to compensate for such a stupidly low standing of mine. At least I still have this notion of wanting-to-pass. I do not resort to hopelessness. There were reasons and factors why I have such a stand... Maybe I'll just reveal that next time.

Now, how was the result? It was simply breathtaking. Of that course of days, I have had developed this kind of thinking: ang babaw ng kaligayahan. You cannot imagine I removed successfully three subjects. When I heard of the news that I passed my removal in one of my subject, I covertly exhilarated and thanked my roommates for all their prayers (I've been begging for their prayers whenever I take a exam. Hehe). You see? Before my face will turn to gray whenever I just saw a whole number 2 in my class card. Alas, it's still not over. I have one subject that which the standings will be released this Tuesday. That subject has had made my hair grew on its end ever since. That subject, of all, is the least that I could pass. How I wish I could pass that subject. Why? It's got three subjects next to it. When I failed that one, I'll be a doomed 5-and-a-half-year student.

I swear I will change this thing in me. I swear it to everything.

I think I must do some characterization of my hell week (five days) as to give justice to this blog's title:

1. I average two exams per day,
2. I average one to two hours of sleep every day,
3. I was not able to defecate in five days (that thing complete left my mind),
4. In one of my exam, I came late because I slept during the waning moment of my study session,
5. My bed's seem an ocean of paper and books,
6. Must I include in that ocean dozens of my mango-flavored Nature's Harvest bottle?,
7. My exams averaged five hours. That is, I spend an average of ten hours a day contemplating with exam papers,
8. I took all my subject's final exams (which one can be exempted),
9. I took three removal exams,
10. I walked for several kilometers. It exceeded my average in two weeks (must I say hundreds?),
11. I was only able to take a bath twice (Tuesday and Thursday),
12. I wrote two articles on Tuesday for PI 100 (those were really an emergency and, also, an upset),
13. For the first time, my face's been recognized in our department,

May be that's all I can type for this moment.